Lard: why 227 g per cup is wrong
King Arthur Baking Ingredient Weight Chart publishes 227 g (8 oz) per US cup of lard. This site rejects that figure and publishes 205 g (7.2 oz) instead, from USDA SR Legacy "Lard" (FDC 171401) (density 0.8665 g/mL, matching the composition of the substance). The reason:
0.959 g/mL is heavier than lard itself. Melted lard is 0.896-0.904 g/mL by the Codex standard, and solid lard at room temperature is only a few percent denser, about 0.92; a cup packed with solid fat with no air at all could not pass about 218 g. USDA measures 205 g and the labels 208 g. Half a cup is 4 fluid ounces, and 113 g is 4 weight ounces: the fluid ounce read as a weight ounce, King Arthur's 227 g cup.
The arithmetic
| Source | 1 cup | Density | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| King Arthur Baking Ingredient Weight Chart | 227 g8 oz | 0.9595 g/mL | Rejected on physics |
| USDA SR Legacy "Lard" (FDC 171401) | 205 g7.2 oz | 0.8665 g/mL | Published here |
The 227-gram pattern
The figure 227 is 8 × 28.35 — the conversion for weight ounces (avoirdupois). It is applied to volume in fluid ounces without going through the substance’s density. For a substance that happens to have a density of about 0.96 g/mL, the answer would be right; for water, milk, yogurt, cream, buttermilk, pumpkin purée, ricotta and evaporated milk, all of which are denser than water, it is wrong. The same number 227 appears on the King Arthur chart for every one of these ingredients, which is the signature of an arithmetic pattern rather than a measurement.
The full list of 227-gram rejections is on the corrections page.
The published figure and its sources
The full sourcing for lard, including every accepted and rejected figure, the state or filling method behind each, and the physics or standards reasoning applied, is on the ingredient page.
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