KitchenButter, ghee and oil conversions
Fat is the ingredient most often written in a unit the cook does not have: sticks of butter in American recipes, cups of oil, tablespoons of ghee. It is also the ingredient people most often swap, because the recipe wants butter and the kitchen has ghee. This page covers both jobs.
Butter: sticks, cups, spoons and grams
| Butter | Tablespoons | Grams | Ounces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tablespoon | 1 | 14 g | 1/2 oz |
| 1/4 stick | 2 | 28 g | 1 oz |
| 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) | 4 | 57 g | 2 oz |
| 1 stick (1/2 cup) | 8 | 113 g | 4 oz |
| 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) | 12 | 170 g | 6 oz |
| 2 sticks (1 cup) | 16 | 227 g | 8 oz |
| 4 sticks (2 cups) | 32 | 454 g | 16 oz (1 lb) |
One US stick of butter is 4 ounces, 113 g. Figures rounded to the nearest gram.
Indian butter is sold in 100 g and 500 g packs. For a recipe that wants one stick, use a 100 g pack and a heaped tablespoon more. For two sticks (one cup), use 225 g: two 100 g packs and a quarter of another.
Ghee and oil by the spoon and cup
| Measure | Butter | Ghee | Oil |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon | 4.7 g | 4.3 g | 4.5 g |
| 1 tablespoon | 14.2 g | 12.8 g | 13.6 g |
| 1/4 cup | 57 g | 51 g | 54 g |
| 1/3 cup | 76 g | 68 g | 73 g |
| 1/2 cup | 114 g | 102 g | 109 g |
| 1 cup | 227 g | 205 g | 218 g |
Notice that the same cup holds different weights. Butter is the heaviest of the three, oil comes next and ghee is the lightest. When a recipe gives fat in grams, convert with the right column.
Swapping butter, ghee and oil
Butter is not pure fat. About four-fifths of it is fat, and the rest is mostly water with a little milk solid. Ghee and oil are fat all the way through. That is the whole secret of swapping them.
- Butter to ghee or oil: use about four-fifths of the weight, and add back a little liquid. For 100 g of butter, use 80 g of ghee or oil plus a tablespoon or so of milk or water.
- Ghee or oil to butter: use about a quarter more. For 80 g of oil, use 100 g of butter, and hold back a tablespoon of the recipe's liquid.
- Ghee and oil for each other: equal weights.
What changes when you swap
- Cakes with oil stay soft and moist for days, and even when cold. They taste plainer, so vanilla, cardamom or citrus zest helps.
- Cakes with butter have more flavour and a finer crumb when the butter is beaten with the sugar first. Oil cannot be beaten this way, so do not expect the same rise from a recipe built on creaming.
- Ghee in baking gives a rich, nutty taste and a short, sandy texture. That is perfect for nankhatai and shortbread and less suited to a light sponge.
- Biscuits and pastry need a fat that is solid when cold. Chilled butter or set ghee works. Oil gives a crumbly, mealy result.
- Frying and tadka: butter burns quickly because of its milk solids. Ghee and oil stand much higher heat. To cook with a butter flavour, use ghee, or add a spoon of butter at the end.
Salted or unsalted
Most table butter in India is salted. Baking recipes from abroad usually mean unsalted butter and then add salt. If you use salted butter, leave out the salt the recipe lists. For a very delicate bake, white (unsalted) cooking butter or home-made white butter is the closer match.
Softened, melted, cold
- Softened means soft enough to press a finger in, but not shiny or oily. Leave it out of the fridge for a while. In an Indian summer that may be ten minutes.
- Melted butter should be cooled a little before it meets eggs, or the eggs will cook.
- Cold butter, for pastry, should go back in the fridge whenever it starts to feel greasy.
Measure butter while it is solid, by weight or by the wrapper marks. Ghee can be measured set or melted: the weight is the same, but a cup of melted ghee has no air gaps and so is a truer cup.
Making ghee from butter: what to expect
Because butter is about four-fifths fat, 500 g of butter gives roughly 400 g of ghee, a little less after straining. Home-made white butter from malai holds more water, so its yield is lower. For other ingredient swaps, see the substitutes list.
Questions people ask
How many grams is one stick of butter?
113 grams, which is 4 ounces, 8 tablespoons or half a US cup.
Can I use ghee instead of butter in a cake?
Yes. Use about four-fifths of the weight of butter and add a tablespoon of milk for every 100 g of butter replaced. The cake will taste richer and be a little more crumbly.
Can I replace butter with oil?
In most cakes and muffins, yes: use about 80 g of oil for 100 g of butter. Biscuits and pastry that need solid fat do not work well with oil.
How much ghee does 500 g of butter make?
Roughly 400 g, a little less after straining, because butter is about four-fifths fat.
More kitchen help
- Cups to gramsAtta, maida, sugar, rice, ghee and more, by ingredient.
- MeasuresTeaspoon, tablespoon, cup, ml, katori, pav, tola and seer.
- Oven temperaturesCelsius, Fahrenheit and gas mark, with fan oven settings.
- SubstitutesWhat to use when an ingredient is missing.
- Cooking timesPressure cooker minutes for dals, beans and rice.
- How much to cookRice, dal, atta and vegetables for any number of people.
- Food storageHow long food keeps in the fridge and the freezer.
- Spice namesJeera, ajwain, kalonji: English and Hindi names with uses.
- Dal and grain namesDals, flours and millets in English and Hindi.
- Vegetable namesTori, tinda, parwal: English and Hindi names with season.
- Spoons to gramsGrams in a teaspoon and tablespoon of each ingredient.
- Measuring without a scaleWeigh by packets, cups, katoris, glasses and spoons.
- Grams, ounces, poundsCharts both ways, and how to read a foreign recipe.
- ml, cups, fluid ouncesLiquid measures, with US, metric and UK sizes.
- Halve or double a recipeWhat to multiply, what not to, and the awkward amounts.
- Cake tin sizesRound to square, bigger to smaller: how much batter fits.
- Recipe words explainedAbbreviations and cooking words, with Hindi kitchen words.
- Reheating leftoversCooling, storing, thawing and reheating, from official guidance.
- Safe cooking temperaturesOfficial minimum temperatures for chicken, meat, fish, eggs.