Cooking Unit Converter
🇳🇿 New Zealand version
New Zealand recipes use metric measures, a 250 mL cup and a 15 mL tablespoon, but cookbooks from Australia and the US use different spoons. This converter starts with the New Zealand measures, lists the 20 mL Australian tablespoon and US spoons separately, and weighs 50 ingredients by the cup.
Use Cooking Unit Converter online
Cooking Unit Converter
Convert between cups, spoons, millilitres, grams and ounces — with real ingredient densities, so a cup of flour and a cup of honey do not weigh the same.
What are you converting?
Starts at New Zealand's usual cup; your choice is kept. Spoons follow New Zealand: a tablespoon is 15 mL.
125 g per US cup · spooned and levelled — only used when converting between volume and weight
The same amount, every way
Weight figures assume flour, plain / all-purpose. Click any tile to copy it.
New Zealand rules and figures
- New Zealand recipes use the metric 250 millilitre cup, with the tablespoon at 15 millilitres and the teaspoon at 5 millilitres.
- The sources checked for New Zealand give no official pint or fluid ounce, so neither is offered as a local unit.
- The Concise New Zealand Food Composition Tables are the source listed for New Zealand’s metric measures for volume.
- Australian recipes use a 20 millilitre tablespoon, so one Australian spoon is a third bigger than the New Zealand tablespoon on this page.
Sources: Concise New Zealand Food Composition Tables, 14th edition (checked 2026-11-08)
How the Cooking Unit Converter works
Volume is kept in millilitres and weight in grams, with ingredient density as the only bridge between them. Spoons and the cup are plain millilitre sizes, so converting between them is just a ratio.
tablespoons = mL ÷ 15; grams = mL × (grams per US cup ÷ 236.588); fan oven °C = conventional °C − 20
- The local measures are the 15 mL tablespoon, the 5 mL teaspoon and the 250 mL cup. No official New Zealand pint or fluid ounce was found, so the local list omits them.
- The 20 mL Australian tablespoon is offered under measures from other countries, because it is a third larger than the New Zealand one.
- One 15 mL tablespoon of honey at 340 g per US cup is 21.6 g, and a 250 mL cup of plain flour is 132.1 g.
- A hundred grams of butter is 104.2 mL by volume, or 6.95 tablespoons of 15 mL.
How to use the Cooking Unit Converter
- Put in the amount. Type the number from the recipe in Amount. Use decimals for part quantities such as 0.5.
- Choose the measures. Pick From and To. The New Zealand list opens with the 250 mL cup, the 15 mL spoons and the metric units.
- Set the ingredient. Select the Ingredient when you change a spoon or cup to grams, as honey and flour weigh very differently.
- Browse the weights. The Ingredient weights tab lists every ingredient per cup, half cup, tablespoon and teaspoon with a search box.
- Convert an oven setting. The Oven temperature tab converts between Celsius and Fahrenheit and shows the gas mark and fan equivalent.
Example: Honey, flour and butter in New Zealand measures
One 15 mL tablespoon of honey weighs 21.6 g. Plain flour comes to 132.1 g per 250 mL cup, and whole milk to 257.8 g. Working from weight, 100 g of butter fills 104.2 mL, or 6.95 tablespoons. Setting the oven to 190 °C gives 374 °F and gas mark 5; a fan oven wants 170 °C (338 °F).
When to use the Cooking Unit Converter
- Using an Australian cookbook. Convert 20 mL Australian tablespoons into 15 mL ones before measuring so the recipe does not come up short.
- Baking from a US blog. Switch the cup standard to US customary and see grams for each cup of flour or sugar.
- Scaling butter by weight. Convert grams of butter into tablespoons when you do not have a scale to hand.
- Using a fan oven. Enter the recipe’s temperature and read a fan setting that is 20 degrees lower.
What the Cooking Unit Converter does not do
- Ingredient weights are fixed single figures, mostly spooned-and-levelled. A packed cup of flour can weigh 20% more, so use them as a starting point.
- Only 50 ingredients are listed. Anything else, such as grated carrot or chopped onion, needs a weight from the packaging.
- The fan-oven setting is a flat reduction of 20 °C. Some ovens and recipes call for 25 °C.
- Volume units cover US, imperial, Australian and Indian katori sizes only; Japanese cups and metric spoons beyond the listed ones are absent. A pint or fluid ounce is not offered as a local unit in countries with no official size.
- The converter does not scale a recipe or change cooking times.
When something else is a better fit
- When you want to scale a whole recipe for more or fewer servings, use the Recipe Scaler.
- When you need general length, weight or temperature conversion, use the Unit Converter.
- When you need exact weights for baking science, use a kitchen scale and the weights printed by the recipe's author.
Questions about the Cooking Unit Converter
How big is a New Zealand tablespoon?
It is 15 mL, made of three 5 mL teaspoons. That is a quarter smaller than an Australian tablespoon, which holds 20 mL, so an Australian recipe needs about a third more per spoon.
How many grams are in a cup of flour?
132.1 g for a 250 mL cup of plain flour, based on 125 g for a US customary cup. Packed flour weighs more, so use the figure as a guide only.
How much is 100 g of butter in tablespoons?
104.2 mL, which is 6.95 tablespoons of 15 mL. The tool uses 227 g of butter per US customary cup for that conversion.
Does it include pints and fluid ounces?
Not as local units, because no official New Zealand pint or fluid ounce was found. They are listed as measures from other countries, so you can still convert an imported recipe.
How do I find a fan-oven setting?
Open Oven temperature, type the recipe’s degrees and read the fan figure, which is 20 degrees lower. A 190 °C recipe becomes 170 °C. Adjust further if the top browns early.