Dried sage

For rubbed (dried leaves rubbed to a soft fluff), spooned and leveled, one US cup of dried sage weighs between 33.6 and 39.4 grams (1.2 to 1.4 ounces), depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. Use 36.3 grams (1.3 ounces) as Herbco and Frontier count rubbed sage to the pound. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Ground, spooned and leveled: 32–56.7 g (1.1–2 oz) per cup.

Also called sage, rubbed sage, ground sage, dried sage leaves, sage powder, powdered sage.

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

A teaspoon of rubbed sage weighs about 0.8 g, and a cup between 34 and 39 g (1.2 to 1.4 oz); ground sage weighs 0.7 to 1.2 g a teaspoon, a spread the sources cannot settle. Bulk sellers and jar labels agree on rubbed sage within 17%, and the page recommends 36.3 g a cup.

Dried sage is the dried leaf of common sage, Salvia officinalis, a grey-green herb whose leaves are covered in fine hairs that give them a velvety feel. It is sold two ways. Rubbed sage is the dried leaves rubbed through a screen into a soft, fluffy, almost woolly mass; ground sage is the leaves milled into a fine powder. Sage seasons Thanksgiving stuffing, breakfast sausage, pork and poultry, poultry seasoning blends, brown butter sauces for pasta and white beans.

For rubbed sage there is no USDA record. Herbco and Frontier Co-op, two bulk sellers, both count 12.5 cups of rubbed sage to the pound, 36.3 g a cup or 0.76 g a teaspoon, and Frontier's organic rubbed sage 11.5 cups, 39.4 g. The labels of two jarred rubbed sages, Spice Trend and Adams, give a teaspoon as 0.7 g, 33.6 g a cup. The figures are 17% apart, past the 10% this site allows for spices, so the page shows the range and recommends the bulk sellers' 36.3 g, the middle of the five.

Ground sage is harder. USDA's record weighs a teaspoon at 0.7 g and a tablespoon at 2.0 g, 32 g a cup. The Shamrock Foodservice spice table, which gives 33 teaspoons of ground sage to the ounce of weight, comes to 41.2 g. Herbco and Frontier both count 8 cups of sage powder to the pound, 56.7 g a cup, 1.2 g a teaspoon. The spread is 77%, so ground sage is published as a range. A Rouses Markets label gives a quarter teaspoon of ground sage as 0.2 g, which rounding could put anywhere from 0.15 to 0.25 g, so it is listed without a figure.

King Arthur Baking's chart has no sage row.

The physical check: sage's hairs make it the fluffiest of the common dried herbs. Rubbed, the leaves break into soft, felted shreds that spring back rather than settle, so a teaspoon holds less than a gram, about what basil weighs on this site. Grinding breaks that felt down, which is why the bulk sellers' powder weighs half again what their rubbed sage does, 8 cups to the pound against 12.5. How finely a mill grinds decides how much of the fluff is left, and USDA's ground figure, the same 0.7 g a teaspoon the jar labels give for rubbed sage, is consistent with a powder that kept most of it.

Practical guidance: use 0.8 g per teaspoon of rubbed sage, 2.3 g per tablespoon and about 36 g per cup. For ground sage, use 0.7 g per teaspoon for a soft supermarket powder and up to 1.2 g for a fine bulk powder. Ground sage packs more leaf into the spoon than rubbed sage, so it tastes stronger; when swapping one for the other, start with less ground sage and taste. For sausage made in quantity, where sage is often given in grams, weigh it rather than converting.