Vegetable oil in grams, and a gap nothing can explain away
Two American authorities read a cup of vegetable oil 20 grams apart: the USDA measured 218, King Arthur prints 198. On flour a gap like that is the fill method, spooned against scooped. Oil has nothing to pack down, so this one has to come from the chart rather than the kitchen.
Twenty grams apart on a liquid
Every other disagreement on this site has an excuse. Flour can be spooned or scooped, brown sugar packed or loose, cocoa settled or fluffed. Oil finds its own level: pour it to the line and the cup holds what the cup holds. So when two authorities differ by 20 g on it, one of them is not measuring. Put the ounce column beside the grams and the answer shows itself.
| Authority | A US cup | In ounces |
|---|---|---|
| King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart | 198 g | 7 oz |
| USDA FoodData Central | 218 g | 7.7 oz |
King Arthur's cup is 7 ounces on the nose, which is a number you choose, not a number a scale hands you. The USDA's is 7.7, which is what an odd, real measurement looks like. The USDA also weighed two different oils and landed on 218 both times. We publish 218 g, and the habit of asking which figure was measured rather than picked runs through the methodology page.
Vegetable oil conversions in full
Everything below follows the USDA's 218 gram cup. A plain cup of vegetable oil in grams is the figure most recipes want; the spoons are published separately rather than divided out of the cup.
| Vegetable oil | Grams | Ounces |
|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon | 4.5 g | 0.16 oz |
| 1 tablespoon | 13.6 g | 0.48 oz |
| 1/4 cup | 54.5 g | 1.9 oz |
| 1/3 cup | 72.7 g | 2.6 oz |
| 1/2 cup | 109 g | 3.8 oz |
| 3/4 cup | 164 g | 5.8 oz |
| 1 cup | 218 g | 7.7 oz |
| 2 cups | 436 g | 15.4 oz |
Density used: 0.92 g per ml, lighter than water at 1.00.
Soybean or canola: one row or two?
Bottles labelled vegetable oil in an American shop are usually soybean, canola or a blend, and the USDA files them separately. Their cups match at 218 g. Their tablespoons differ by four tenths of a gram, 13.6 against 14. That is why one row for vegetable oil is honest here while one row for oats or brown sugar would not be: the two products weigh the same, and we can point at the entries that show it rather than assert it.
Questions about vegetable oil weight
- Is a cup of vegetable oil 198 or 218 grams?
- We publish 218 g, the USDA figure. King Arthur's 198 is 7 ounces exactly, a round imperial number; the USDA weighed soybean oil and canola oil separately and got 218 for both. Two measurements agreeing beat one rounded figure.
- Does canola oil weigh the same as vegetable oil?
- By the cup, yes: the USDA reads 218 g for soybean and canola alike. On the tablespoon they part by 0.4 g, 13.6 against 14, which is smaller than the error in reading the spoon.
- How much does a tablespoon of vegetable oil weigh?
- 13.6 g, from the USDA's soybean oil entry. Oil pours level and holds no heap, so a tablespoon of it is one of the few spoon measures on this site you can trust without a scale.
Sources
USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy for the 218 gram cup of soybean oil, the matching canola entry, the 13.6 gram tablespoon and the 4.5 gram teaspoon. King Arthur Baking for the 198 gram cup. Roskachestvo for the rule that liquids carry no heap. Full citations on the sources page.