US Cup (US cup)
Definition
The US cup (symbol US cup) is a unit of volume in the US customary system equal to exactly 0.2365882365 liters, or 236.588 milliliters. One US cup contains 8 US fluid ounces, 16 US tablespoons, or 48 US teaspoons.
History
Volume-based cup measurements became standard in American cookery through Fannie Farmer's 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, which established level measurements with standardized cups in place of weight-based recipes. The convention spread quickly because cup measures suited the dry, scoop-friendly ingredients common in American cooking.
The US customary cup is defined as 1/16 of a US gallon, giving 236.5882365 mL. A separate FDA legal cup of 240 mL is used on nutrition facts labels and is about 1.4% larger, which is why cooked-recipe gram totals sometimes disagree with the totals derived from packaging.
Standard reference
Defined as 1/16 of a US gallon: exactly 236.5882365 mL. NIST Handbook 44 publishes this value; the FDA legal cup of 240 mL is a separate labeling unit defined in 21 CFR 101.9(b)(8).
Common conversions
| 1 US cup | = 0.2365882365 L |
|---|---|
| = 236.588 mL | |
| = 8 US fl oz | |
| = 16 US tbsp |