Density

Density is mass per unit volume, typically expressed in g/cm³ or kg/L (which are numerically identical). Formula: ρ = m / V.

Reference densities at room temperature:

• Water: 1.00 g/cm³ (by definition at 4°C)
• Whole milk: 1.03
• Honey: 1.42
• Olive oil: 0.92
• All-purpose flour: 0.53 (uncompressed)
• Granulated sugar: 0.85
• Brown sugar (packed): 0.93
• Powdered sugar (sifted): 0.56
• Cocoa powder: 0.43
• Salt (table): 1.20

The density difference is why volume measurements are unreliable for dry ingredients: a cup of flour is between 120 g and 150 g depending on how you scoop it. A cup of water is always 240 g (within rounding). This is the core reason serious baking has moved to weight measurements over the last 20 years.

Our cup-to-grams converter applies ingredient-specific densities to give accurate weight conversions for 36 common ingredients. See cooking methodology for the data sources.