A tablespoon in an Australian recipe holds a third more than one in an American recipe. A British pint is a fifth bigger than a US pint. And “cornflour” means something different depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re standing. Most recipes travel well, but a few measures and names change enough to spoil a bake if you don’t catch them.
The short version: US recipes use 236.6 ml cups, tablespoons of just under 15 ml, and Fahrenheit. Australian recipes use 250 ml cups, 20 ml tablespoons and Celsius, often for a fan oven. Modern British recipes mostly weigh in grams, use 15 ml tablespoons, and list Celsius with a fan setting and a gas mark. The details follow.
The measures side by side
| Measure | United States | United Kingdom | Australia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cup | 236.6 ml | 250 ml when used; most recipes weigh instead | 250 ml |
| Tablespoon | 14.8 ml (3 tsp) | 15 ml (3 tsp) | 20 ml (4 tsp) |
| Teaspoon | 4.9 ml | 5 ml | 5 ml |
| Pint | 473 ml (16 US fl oz) | 568 ml (20 UK fl oz) | Older recipes mean the British pint |
| Fluid ounce | 29.6 ml | 28.4 ml | Older recipes use the British one |
| Oven | °F, conventional | °C, fan and gas mark | °C, often fan-forced |
| Dry ingredients | Usually cups | Usually grams | Grams and cups both common |
Weight ounces are the same everywhere: 28.35 g. Only fluid ounces differ.
Cups: a 6% gap
A metric cup holds 250 ml, about 6% more than a US cup. For a single cup that’s small, but recipes that use several cups of flour and sugar drift further.
The cups to grams converter has a switch for the metric cup. With it, one cup of all-purpose flour is 127 g instead of 120 g, and two cups are 254 g instead of 240 g. A cup of whole milk weighs 258 g in a metric cup and 244 g in a US one. If an Australian or New Zealand recipe gives cups, switch to the metric cup before you convert. How much does a cup of sugar weigh? does the same comparison for sugars.
Tablespoons: the big one
The Australian tablespoon is 20 ml, four teaspoons rather than three. In most ingredients, a third more is noticeable, and with leavening, salt or spices it can change the result.
Take baking powder. A US tablespoon of it weighs 12 g. An Australian tablespoon holds about 16 g. Or honey: 2 tablespoons in a US recipe is 30 ml and weighs 42 g, while the same words in an Australian recipe mean 40 ml and 57 g.
The converter uses a 15 ml tablespoon, so for an Australian recipe, enter each tablespoon as four teaspoons with the metric cup selected. Eight teaspoons of honey gives the 57 g above.
Pints and fluid ounces
A British pint is 568 ml, made of 20 British fluid ounces. A US pint is 473 ml, made of 16 US fluid ounces. So “half a pint of milk” in an older British recipe means 284 ml, while an American cook reading it would pour 237 ml. That’s a big difference in a custard or a batter.
The fluid ounces themselves differ only slightly, 28.4 ml against 29.6 ml, so small amounts given in fluid ounces are close enough either way. Pints and quarts are where it matters.
Ovens
US recipes give Fahrenheit for a conventional oven, and some add a separate convection setting. British recipes usually list a conventional Celsius setting, a fan setting about 20 °C lower, and a gas mark. Australian recipes often give a single Celsius figure that assumes a fan-forced oven.
The oven temperature converter works out the others from any one setting. Say an Australian cake recipe says 160 °C fan-forced. The converter gives 180 °C conventional, 356 °F, which you’d set as 350 °F on a US dial, and gas mark 4.
Fan vs conventional oven temperatures explains why the 20 °C rule is only a starting point, and Gas mark temperatures explained has the full chart.
Converting a recipe line by line
Here’s how a few lines from an Australian banana bread recipe translate, using the converter with the metric cup selected:
| The recipe says | What it means | In grams |
|---|---|---|
| 2 cups plain flour | Metric cups of all-purpose flour | 254 g |
| ¾ cup brown sugar | Metric cup, packed | 169 g |
| 1 tablespoon honey | A 20 ml spoon, so 4 teaspoons | 28 g |
| ½ cup milk | Metric cup | 129 g |
| 160 °C fan-forced | 180 °C conventional | 350 °F on a US dial |
Read with American cups and spoons instead, the same lines would give 240 g of flour, 160 g of brown sugar, 21 g of honey and 122 g of milk. Every ingredient comes out short, though not by the same amount, so the balance shifts slightly as well. Weighing removes the guesswork completely.
Same ingredient, different name
| United States | United Kingdom | Australia |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | Plain flour | Plain flour |
| Bread flour | Strong white flour | Bread flour or baker’s flour |
| Self-rising flour | Self-raising flour | Self-raising flour |
| Cornstarch | Cornflour | Cornflour, sometimes made from wheat |
| Baking soda | Bicarbonate of soda | Bicarb soda |
| Superfine sugar | Caster sugar | Caster sugar |
| Powdered or confectioners’ sugar | Icing sugar | Icing sugar, pure or mixture |
| Heavy cream | Double cream is richer; whipping cream is closer | Thickened cream or pure cream |
| Molasses | Black treacle is similar, not identical | Treacle or molasses |
| Golden raisins | Sultanas | Sultanas |
A few of these are traps rather than translations. In the US, “cornflour” usually means finely ground cornmeal, not starch, so an American following a British recipe could thicken a sauce with the wrong thing. US self-rising flour usually contains salt, while British self-raising often doesn’t. Australian “icing sugar mixture” includes a little starch, while “pure icing sugar” doesn’t. And British double cream has much more fat than American heavy cream, so it whips faster and thicker.
Butter and eggs
American recipes portion butter in sticks of 113 g, marked in tablespoons on the wrapper. British and Australian butter comes in 250 g blocks, and recipes give grams. Butter measurements explained converts between them.
Egg sizes also differ. A British large egg is heavier than an American large egg, and size bands vary between countries. For most recipes it hardly matters. For something egg-heavy, like a custard or a sponge, weigh the eggs out of their shells if the recipe gives a weight.
Mistakes when using a foreign recipe
- Reading an Australian tablespoon as an American one. You add a quarter less than intended.
- Using a US cup for an Australian recipe. Everything comes out about 6% light.
- Pouring a US pint for a British one. You’re nearly 100 ml short.
- Ignoring “fan-forced”. Setting a conventional oven to the fan figure bakes 20 °C too cool.
- Swapping “cornflour” without checking. Starch and ground corn behave nothing alike.
Recipe measurement questions
What is a dessertspoon?
A British measure of 10 ml, or two teaspoons, found mostly in older recipes. It sits between a teaspoon and a tablespoon. If you don’t own one, use two level teaspoons.
Do New Zealand recipes use the 20 ml tablespoon?
No. New Zealand uses the 250 ml metric cup like Australia, but its tablespoon is 15 ml, the same as Britain’s. Check where a recipe was written, not just which hemisphere it came from.
What did “a cup” mean in an old British recipe?
It’s hard to be sure. Some older recipes meant a breakfast cup or teacup from the kitchen cupboard, and some meant half an imperial pint, about 284 ml. If the recipe is vague, start with a metric cup and adjust by the look of the batter or dough.