Dried basil

For dried leaves (crushed, as sold in jars), spooned and leveled, one US cup of dried basil weighs between 26.7 and 33.6 grams (0.94 to 1.2 ounces), depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. Use 33.6 grams (1.2 ounces) as USDA weighs a teaspoon and a tablespoon of dried leaves. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Ground, spooned and leveled: 72 g (2.5 oz) per cup.

Also called basil, basil leaves, dried basil leaves, sweet basil, crushed basil, ground basil.

Dried herbs compared: cup weights side by side, the source behind each, and why they differ.

A teaspoon of dried basil leaves weighs about 0.7 g, and a cup between 27 and 34 g (about 1 oz); ground basil weighs twice as much, 1.5 g a teaspoon and 72 g a cup. USDA's figures lead both forms, and bulk sellers' cut and sifted basil runs lighter.

Dried basil is the dried, crushed leaf of sweet basil, Ocimum basilicum. It loses much of the fresh herb's sweetness and keeps a warm, slightly minty flavour, and it goes into tomato sauces, soups, Italian seasoning blends, dressings and roasted vegetables. Most jars hold crushed leaves; ground basil is less common and sold for blends and rubs.

USDA's record for dried basil gives four portions: a teaspoon of leaves at 0.7 g, a tablespoon at 2.1 g, a teaspoon of ground basil at 1.4 g and a tablespoon at 4.5 g. The two leaf portions agree exactly, 33.6 g per cup. Frontier Co-op counts 14 cups of its cut and sifted sweet basil to the pound, 32.4 g a cup, close to USDA. Herbco counts 17 cups to the pound for its organic cut and sifted basil, 26.7 g a cup. The spread is 26%, past the 10% this site allows for spices, so the leaves are published as a range with USDA's 0.7 g teaspoon as the working figure.

Penzeys' catalog shows the same split by cut: its broken-leaf French basil comes to about 34 g per cup of jar size and its coarse-cut California basil to about 23 g. Those are container sizes, not levelled measures, so they are listed without figures, but they show where the variation comes from: the bigger the pieces, the lighter the cup.

Ground basil agrees across three sources. USDA's tablespoon gives 72.0 g a cup, Chef's Resources 75.7 g and Herbco's basil powder, at 6.5 cups to the pound, 69.8 g. The three are within 8.5%, so ground basil gets a single figure, 72 g a cup, 1.5 g a teaspoon.

King Arthur Baking's chart has no basil row; its basil entry is pesto.

The physical check: basil leaves are large and thin, and crushed basil is a jumble of flat, curled flakes with air between and under every piece. That makes it one of the lightest things measured by the spoon, lighter than oregano or thyme, whose leaves are smaller and thicker. Grinding destroys the flakes and lets the particles pack, so a teaspoon of ground basil weighs twice a teaspoon of leaves, exactly what USDA's four portions show.

Practical guidance: use 0.7 g per teaspoon of dried basil leaves, 2.1 g per tablespoon and about 34 g per cup; use 1.5 g per teaspoon and 4.5 g per tablespoon for ground basil. Don't swap ground for leaves spoon for spoon: the ground form is twice as much basil. When a recipe gives dried basil in grams, weigh it, especially if your basil comes from a bulk bag in large flakes.