Thanksgiving Baking Conversions: Pies, Stuffing and Sides in Grams

Pumpkin pie

A classic 9-inch pumpkin pie is built around one 15 oz can of pumpkin and one 12 fl oz can of evaporated milk. Cans are already sold by weight, so the only things worth weighing are the sugar and, if you like, the eggs.

Ingredient — Cups / count — Grams

Pumpkin puree — 1 can (15 oz), about 1¾ cups — 425 g

Granulated sugar — ¾ cup — 150 g

Large eggs — 2 — about 100 g out of the shell

Evaporated milk — 1 can (12 fl oz), 1½ cups — 378 g

Salt — ½ teaspoon — 3.0 g

The pumpkin figure is the can's printed net weight. Per cup, canned pumpkin weighs 245 g in USDA FoodData Central and 227 g in King Arthur's chart; the full breakdown, including a 29 oz can, is on thepumpkin puree grams to cups page.

Evaporated milk weighs 252 g per cup in USDA's data (King Arthur: 113 g per half cup). Leave the spices in teaspoons: they are too light for a kitchen scale to measure reliably, and a teaspoon is already precise enough.

One warning: pumpkin pie filling is not pumpkin puree. The filling has sugar and spice added. If your can says "pie mix" or "pie filling", leave the sugar out of the recipe above.

Pecan pie

Pecan pie is the bake where cups cause the most trouble, because a cup of corn syrup leaves a sticky film behind and nuts measure differently whole and chopped.

Ingredient — Cups / count — Grams

Light corn syrup — 1 cup — 328 g

Granulated sugar — 1 cup — 200 g

Packed brown sugar (if the recipe uses it) — 1 cup — 220 g

Large eggs — 3 — about 150 g out of the shell

Butter, melted — 2 tablespoons — 28 g

Vanilla extract — 1 teaspoon — 4.3 g

Pecan halves — 1½ cups — 149 g

Chopped pecans — 1½ cups — 164 g

The corn syrup number is the one to watch. USDA lists 341 g per cup and King Arthur 312 g; this site uses 328 g. Put the bowl on the scale, tare it, and pour the syrup straight in — no measuring cup to scrape. Thesticky ingredients guideexplains why this matters for honey, molasses and syrups generally.

Pecans are 99 g per cup as halves (USDA; King Arthur lists whole pecans at 105 g) and about 109 g per cup chopped (USDA). If a recipe says "1½ cups pecans, chopped", it means chop first and then measure — so use the higher figure. Thepecan halves converterhas every other amount.

Pie crust

A single 9-inch crust, the base for either pie above:

Ingredient — Cups / spoons — Grams

All-purpose flour — 1¼ cups — 156 g

Cold butter — ½ cup (1 stick) — 113 g

Salt — ¼ teaspoon — 1.5 g

Ice water — 3–4 tablespoons — 44–59 g

The flour is the figure that goes wrong. 125 g per cup is the spooned-and-levelled weight; scoop the cup through the bag and it can hold 140–150 g, which turns a flaky crust into a tough one. If you only weigh one thing this Thanksgiving, weigh the flour. Theflour measuring guideshows the difference.

Add the water a tablespoon at a time and stop when the dough holds together when squeezed. That range — 44 g to 59 g — is the reason recipes give "3 to 4 tablespoons": flour dries out over the season and the dough needs whatever it needs.

Stuffing

Stuffing is forgiving, but cups of chopped vegetables vary wildly with how finely they are cut. These are King Arthur's diced-vegetable weights:

Ingredient — Cups — Grams

Butter — ½ cup — 113 g

Onion, diced — 1 cup — 142 g

Celery, diced — 1 cup — 142 g

Chicken or vegetable broth — 2 cups — about 480 g (broth weighs close to water, 237 g per cup)

Dried breadcrumbs (for a topping) — ½ cup — 54 g

Bread cubes have no reliable cup weight. Neither USDA nor King Arthur publishes one, because it depends on the loaf and how long the cubes have dried. A cup of soft fresh cubes and a cup of oven-dried cubes can differ by half. Weigh the bread before cutting it and write that weight on the recipe — next year's stuffing will then come out the same.

Cranberry sauce

Ingredient — Cups — Grams

Fresh or frozen cranberries — 1 bag (12 oz), about 3½ cups — 340 g

Granulated sugar — 1 cup — 200 g

Water — 1 cup — 237 g

King Arthur weighs fresh or frozen cranberries at 99 g per cup, so a 340 g bag is 3.4 cups. Dried cranberries are a different ingredient for measuring purposes — about 110 g per cup — and are on thedried cranberries page.

Sweet potato casserole

Ingredient — Cups — Grams

Mashed sweet potato — 3 cups — 720 g

Packed brown sugar — ½ cup — 110 g

Butter, melted — ¼ cup — 57 g

Mini marshmallows — 2 cups — 86 g

Chopped pecans (topping) — 1 cup — 109 g

Mashed sweet potato is 240 g per cup and mini marshmallows 43 g per cup in King Arthur's chart. A standard 10 oz (283 g) bag of mini marshmallows is therefore about 6½ cups — far more than one casserole needs.

Scaling for a bigger table

Grams make scaling trivial. To make a pie and a half, multiply every line by 1.5: 425 g of pumpkin becomes 638 g, 150 g of sugar becomes 225 g. There is no "1⅛ cups" arithmetic. Therecipe scalerwill do a whole pasted ingredient list at once, and thehalving guidecovers the eggs and pan sizes that do not scale neatly.

Sources

USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy household measures: pumpkin, canned, without salt (FDC 168450, 245 g per cup); nuts, pecans (FDC 170182, 99 g per cup halves); syrups, corn, light (FDC 168837, 341 g per cup); evaporated milk (FDC 171276, 252 g per cup).

King Arthur Baking ingredient weight chart, checked 1 October 2026: pumpkin purée 227 g, corn syrup 312 g, pecans (whole) 105 g, cranberries (fresh or frozen) 99 g, celery and onions (diced) 142 g, mashed sweet potatoes 240 g, mini marshmallows 43 g per cup.

Can sizes are the net weights printed on standard US cans and bags: 15 oz = 425 g, 12 oz = 340 g, 10 oz = 283 g.

Frequently asked questions

How many grams is a 15 oz can of pumpkin puree?

425 g, which is the net weight printed on the can. At 245 g per cup (USDA FoodData Central) that is about 1¾ cups. A 29 oz can is 822 g, about 3⅓ cups.

How many grams of pecans do I need for a pecan pie?

Most 9-inch pecan pies use 1½ cups of pecans. As halves that is about 149 g (99 g per cup, USDA); chopped it is about 164 g, because chopped nuts pack tighter (109 g per cup, USDA).

How many grams is 1 cup of corn syrup?

This site uses 328 g. The published references disagree a little: USDA FoodData Central lists 341 g for light corn syrup and King Arthur Baking lists 312 g. Weighing it is the easiest way to avoid the sticky cup altogether.

How many cups of cranberries are in a 12 oz bag?

A 12 oz bag is 340 g. King Arthur Baking weighs a cup of fresh or frozen cranberries at 99 g, so the bag holds about 3½ cups.

How much do bread cubes for stuffing weigh per cup?

Neither USDA nor King Arthur publishes a cup weight for bread cubes, because it depends on the loaf and how dry the cubes are. Weigh the bread before you cut it and write the weight on the recipe; that is the number that makes the stuffing repeatable.