Yogurt: why 227 g per cup is wrong
King Arthur Baking publishes 227 g per US cup of yogurt. This site rejects that figure and publishes 245 g instead, from USDA FoodData Central (density 1.0356 g/mL, matching the composition of the substance). The reason:
0.9595 g/ml is lighter than water. Plain yogurt is roughly 85% water carrying dissolved and suspended milk solids (protein, lactose, calcium and phosphate), so it is necessarily denser than water, and no measuring method or preparation makes a hydrated dairy product lighter than its own solvent. The figure is 8 ounces per cup, which is the volume of a US cup expressed in fluid ounces read as a weight, the same convention that produced the rejected King Arthur figure for milk.
The arithmetic
| Source | 1 cup | Density | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| King Arthur Baking | 227 g | 0.9595 g/mL | Rejected on physics |
| USDA FoodData Central | 245 g | 1.0356 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 yogurt, 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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