Fresh cilantro

One US cup of fresh cilantro weighs between 16 and 20.9 grams (0.56 to 0.74 ounces), depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. Use 18 grams (0.63 ounces) for leaves roughly chopped and spooned in without pressing, as Milk Street weighs a cup. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

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

A cup of chopped fresh cilantro weighs about 16 to 21 g (0.6 to 0.7 oz), and for leaves roughly chopped and spooned into the cup without pressing, about 18 g. That makes cilantro one of the lightest things a cook measures by the cup: the same cup holds about 13 times its weight in water.

Cilantro is the leaf of the coriander plant, Coriandrum sativum, whose dried seeds are the spice called coriander. It is sold in bunches with the stems on and goes into salsa, guacamole, chutneys, curries, Thai and Vietnamese salads, and over tacos, soups and noodles as a garnish. The tender upper stems taste much like the leaves and are usually chopped with them; the lower stems are tougher and are often trimmed off.

USDA's record for cilantro leaves weighs a quarter cup at 4 g, 16 g a cup. Milk Street weighs a cup of roughly chopped leaves at 18 g. USDA's school Food Buying Guide, starting from a pound of cilantro as bought, gets 0.84 lb, about 18 1/4 cups, of trimmed, chopped cilantro, which is 20.9 g a cup. The three are 30% apart from lowest to highest, over the 10% this site allows for chopped produce, so this entry publishes the range with 18 g as the working figure. USDA's quarter cup is given to the whole gram, so its 4 g could be anything from 3.5 to 4.5 g, 14 to 18 g a cup.

Norway's food table gives coriander leaves at 5 g a decilitre, 11.8 g a US cup, but its health directorate's measurement brochure marks that figure as taken from a similar food rather than weighed, so it is listed without a figure. America's Test Kitchen's single row for six leafy herbs, cilantro among them, gives half an ounce as 3/4 cup of whole leaves or 3 tablespoons finely minced; it is not cilantro's own measurement and is listed without a figure too.

The physical check: cilantro leaves are thin, soft and finely lobed, and the stems that go with them are slender. Chopped roughly, the pieces lie loosely against each other and fill only about a twelfth of the cup, which puts a level cup near 0.08 g per millilitre, 18 to 21 g. That is lighter than parsley chopped the same way, which Milk Street weighs at 32 g a cup by the same method: parsley's leaves are thicker and stiffer, so each piece weighs more for its size. Finely minced cilantro packs more closely and weighs more, as every leafy herb does; no source weighs minced cilantro on its own.

Practical guidance: use 18 g a cup for roughly chopped cilantro, leaves and tender stems together, spooned in without pressing; that is about 4.5 g a quarter cup and a little over 1 g a tablespoon. Pressing the leaves down changes it a lot: when America's Test Kitchen had 26 cooks measure a cup of basil leaves, the heaviest cup weighed nearly three times the lightest. For salsa, chutney, green sauces and pesto where cilantro is a main ingredient, weigh it; for a garnish, measure by eye.