Converting weights, measurements and temperatures

Recently I’ve been putting all oven temperatures, weights and measurements in both metric and imperial in my books, and I’m in the process of going back and editing some of my older books so they also have both units.

This came to my attention recently when a reader left a review on Amazon for one of my earliest books saying that the book was good, but they would have to convert all the measurements to use any of the recipes.

So, while it won’t be long before all of my books have both Imperial and metric units, I thought it might be useful to write a quick post showing how easy it is to switch between either, for use with any of my older recipes or when you find a great recipe online or in an old book. When you come across a recipe which uses a system of weights and measurements you’re not used to, you basically have 2 options:

1. Use As-Is

Unless you’re using a really ancient set of scales, it almost certainly supports both Imperial and Metric. Analogue scales have both sets of numbers on the dial, while digital scales normally require a simple button push. It really doesn’t matter if you “know” or “understand” the “other” system, just read the number off the scales as you measure, and match the number on the scales to the number in the book!

2. Convert

This is actually pretty easy. For weight, think of 1 oz as 30 grams. It’s actually 28.35 grams, but go with 30 and you won’t be far off.

Same for fl oz which is roughly 30 ml (actually 29.57 so even closer than for dry weights!)

So, if a recipe calls for 150g of flour, that’s 5 oz (30 * 5 = 150)

Going the other way, if a cake needs 4 oz of butter, that works out to 120 grams… pretty easy huh!

Well, it gets even easier. Good old Google has a conversion tool built right in which converts pretty much any weight or measurement for you. For example, type “convert 150 g to oz” into Google and you’ll get “150 grams = 5.29109429 ounces” as the result! Obviously you don’t need anywhere like that level of accuracy – so let’s just call that 5 ounces. Here’s a screenshot to show what the results look like in Google:

It works for pretty much any type of weight or measurement, including temperatures so give it a try.

Conversion tables

If you would prefer a conversion chart, here are approximate conversions for metric and Imperial weights, volumes, oven temperatures and “cup” measurements. You might want to bookmark this page to come back to, or print these off!

Weights
Imperial	Metric
½ oz ¾ oz 1 oz 1½ oz 2 oz 2½ oz 3 oz 4 oz 4½ oz 5 oz 6 oz 7 oz 8 oz 9 oz 10 oz 12 oz 1 lb 1 lb 8 oz 2 lb 3 lb	15 g 20 g 30 g 40 g 55 g 70 g 85 g 110 g 125 g 150 g 175 g 200 g 225 g 250 g 275 g 350 g 450 g 700 g 900 g 1.35 kg

Volume
Imperial	Metric
2 fl oz 3 fl oz 5 fl oz (¼ pint) 10 fl oz (½ pint) 1 pint 1 ¼ pint 1 ¾ pint 2 pint 2½ pint 4 pint	55 ml 75 ml 150 ml 275 ml 570 ml 725 ml 1 litre 1.2 litre 1.5 litre 2.25 litres

Oven Temperatures
Gas Mark	°F	°C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9	275°F 300°F 325°F 350°F 375°F 400°F 425°F 450°F 475°F	140°C 150°C 170°C 180°C 190°C 200°C 220°C 230°C 240°C

American Cup Conversions
1 Cup	Imperial	Metric
1 cup flour 1 cup caster sugar 1 cup soft brown sugar 1 cup fat (butter/margarine) 1 cup sultanas/raisins 1 cup currants 1 cup ground almonds 1 cup golden syrup 1 cup uncooked rice 1 cup grated cheese 1 stick butter	5oz 8oz 6oz 8oz 7oz 5oz 4oz 12oz 7oz 4oz 4oz	150g 225g 175g 225g 200g 150g 110g 350g 200g 110g 110g

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