Dried rosemary

One US cup of dried rosemary weighs between 34.9 and 52.8 grams (1.2 to 1.9 ounces), depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. Use 52.8 grams (1.9 ounces) as USDA weighs a tablespoon of dried rosemary. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Also called rosemary, rosemary leaves, dried rosemary leaves, rosemary needles, whole rosemary.

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

A teaspoon of dried rosemary weighs about 1.1 g, and a cup between 35 and 53 g (1.2 to 1.9 oz). USDA weighs a tablespoon at 3.3 g, Chef's Resources and Frontier Co-op agree within 5% of it, and one bulk seller's whole rosemary is much lighter.

Dried rosemary is the dried needle-like leaf of Salvia rosmarinus, sold whole in jars and used with lamb, chicken, roast potatoes, focaccia and bread, beans and tomato sauces. The dried needles are hard and woody, so cooks often crush them between their fingers or chop them before use. Ground rosemary exists but is uncommon.

USDA's record for dried rosemary gives a teaspoon at 1.2 g and a tablespoon at 3.3 g, without saying whether the leaves were whole or crushed. The tablespoon is the more precise portion and works out to 52.8 g a cup. Two copies of the record agree on 3.3 g, while two others show 3.5 and 3.6 g; the difference is small next to the spread between sources. Chef's Resources gives rosemary leaves at 1.78 oz per cup, 50.5 g, and Frontier counts 9 cups of its whole organic leaves to the pound, 50.4 g. Herbco counts 13 cups of whole rosemary to the pound, 34.9 g. With Herbco in, the spread is 51%, so the page publishes the range and recommends USDA's figure, where the other three sources sit.

Herbco's cut and sifted rosemary, at 4.5 cups to the pound, would weigh 100.8 g a cup. Cut rosemary is chopped needles, which pack far tighter than whole ones, so it is listed without a figure for whole leaves; it shows how much the cut matters.

King Arthur Baking's chart has no rosemary row.

The physical check: whole rosemary needles are stiff and straight, and in a spoon they cross and prop each other up, so a lot of the spoon is air. How much depends on how long the needles are and how many are broken: a jar of short, broken needles packs heavier than a bag of long whole ones, which fits Herbco's light figure for whole leaves and its heavy one for cut. USDA's 1.1 g teaspoon sits with the typical jarred product.

Practical guidance: use 1.1 g per teaspoon of dried rosemary, 3.3 g per tablespoon and about 53 g per cup. If a recipe asks for crushed or chopped dried rosemary, measure the whole needles first and crush them after, or weigh: crushing shrinks the volume. In bread and focaccia recipes written in grams, weigh the rosemary; a cup of long whole needles can weigh a third less than a cup of short ones.