Cherries grams per cup: fresh, frozen, dried, candied and concentrate compared

A US cup of pitted cherries weighs about 155 grams whether the cherries are fresh or frozen. Dried cherries weigh 142 to 160 grams, candied cherries 200 grams and tart cherry concentrate 315.5 grams, and King Arthur’s figures for frozen cherries and for cherry concentrate are both rejected.

All weights are for a US cup of 236.5882365 ml; a tablespoon is a sixteenth of it. A range means the sources disagree by more than this site’s tolerance for that kind of ingredient, so no single figure is chosen. King Arthur’s figure is shown where this site records one, with the verdict on it. Each ingredient’s own page has every source and the full reasoning.

Fresh and frozen pitted cherries fill a cup the same way. USDA weighs a cup of pitted fresh sweet cherries at 154 grams and a cup of unthawed frozen tart cherries at 155, and its Food Buying Guide yields 159 grams a cup once frozen cherries are thawed with their juice. A cherry weighs about as much as water for its size, and round fruit poured into a cup fills about 60 to 65 percent of it, which is exactly what those figures show. King Arthur lists chopped fresh cherries at 160 grams a cup, in agreement.

King Arthur's frozen figure is the exception. Its chart gives a cup of frozen cherries as 4 ounces, 113 grams, which would leave more than half the cup empty; its own sour cherry pie recipe uses 225 grams a cup of frozen or water-packed cherries. The 113 grams is rejected.

Drying removes most of the water and leaves a smaller, wrinkled piece that packs loosely. Dried cherries weigh 142 grams a cup by King Arthur and 160 by USDA for sweetened dried tart cherries, a gap this site publishes as a range; added sugar adds weight and fills the gaps between pieces.

Candied, or glacé, cherries go the other way: cooked in syrup until saturated, they are about 80 percent sugar and weigh 200 grams a cup by both King Arthur and the Waitrose conversion chart. Both are rounded charts, so the candied figure carries low confidence.

Tart cherry concentrate is juice with most of its water boiled off, sold at 68 °Brix. Two industry specifications put it at 1.33 to 1.35 grams per millilitre, 315.5 to 320 grams a cup; King Arthur’s 42 grams per 2 tablespoons would need a syrup stronger than 80 °Brix and is a rounded ounce figure, rejected.

For a pie, the weight of fruit matters more than the cups. Measure frozen cherries frozen, at 155 grams a cup, and weigh dried and candied cherries rather than converting, since how they are chopped changes how they pack.