Grams of Butter to Cups

Grams to cups — quick reference

The formula, worked line by line

One division by 226.8. The number comes from the US stick being a quarter of a pound, so a cup of butter is a full pound of it divided by two, and every figure on this page descends from that.

Once the sticks and tablespoons are in view, the cup figure becomes the least useful of the three, which is an unusual conclusion for a page about converting to cups but the honest one.

cups = grams / 226.8
sticks = cups x 2
tablespoons = cups x 16
1 stick = 113.4 g = 8 tablespoons = 0.5 cups
250 g / 226.8 = 1.1 cups = 2.2 sticks

Why the stick is 113.4 grams

The US pound is defined as exactly 0.45359237 kg, so a quarter pound is 113.398 g. Butter has been sold in quarter-pound sticks since the early twentieth century, and a cup of butter being two sticks is a coincidence of the customary system that turned out to be extremely convenient.

The units butter is sold in

The advice that survives all of this is short. Weigh butter if you can, cut to the wrapper if you cannot, and never assume two blocks from different countries hold the same amount just because they look similar.

How to use the grams of butter to cups

Divide by 226.8. That is one cup of butter, and it is also exactly two US sticks, which is the more useful form of the same fact. Butter is the only ingredient in a kitchen that arrives with its own measuring scale printed on the packaging, and using that scale beats every other method available.

Packing solid butter into a measuring cup is genuinely difficult. It resists, it traps air pockets against the walls, and it leaves a film behind when you turn it out. A cup that looks full can be several tablespoons short, and none of that is visible while you are doing it.

The 250 g block is where translated recipes go wrong. It looks like it ought to be a cup, or two sticks, and it is neither. It comes to 1.1 cups, or 2.2 sticks, and it is 23.2 g heavier than the cup people substitute it for. In a shortcrust or a cookie dough that is enough extra fat to change the texture noticeably.

Where wrappers are not marked, which is most of the world outside the US, the answer is a knife and a scale, or a knife and arithmetic. A 250 g block cut into ten equal slices gives 25 g pieces, and most recipe quantities can be assembled from those without ever reaching for a cup.

The 250 gram block that is not two sticks

Butter is sold in different standard sizes in different places, and the sizes are close enough to be confused and far enough apart to matter. The US stick is a quarter pound, 113.4 g. Much of Europe sells 250 g blocks. Neither is a round number in the other system, and recipes cross borders freely.

Going the other way is just as common. A recipe written around a 250 g block, followed with two US sticks, is 23.2 g short of butter. The dough will be drier and stiffer than intended, and the usual response is to add liquid, which produces something different again.

Measuring butter when there is no scale

The water displacement trick is the traditional answer and it works, though it is fiddly. Fill a measuring jug to a known mark with cold water, push butter under until the level rises by the volume you need, then pour off the water. It is accurate because it measures volume directly rather than trying to pack a cup.

The melted-butter point catches people out in quick breads and muffins. Melting does not change the weight, but it changes how the butter packs, so a cup measured solid and a cup measured melted are not the same amount of butter. If the recipe says melted, melt after measuring unless it says otherwise.

Questions people ask