Ghee

One US cup of ghee weighs between 176 and 205 grams, depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. That range is the answer; a single number would not be. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Also called ghee, clarified butter, desi ghee, butter oil, anhydrous butter oil.

Ghee publishes as a range 176 to 205 grams per cup because the two most authoritative sources disagree by 14%, well over the 5% fat tolerance, and the disagreement reflects real product and measurement variance rather than one source being wrong. King Arthur publishes 176 g/cup for the standard state (density 0.7439 g/mL, from their 1/4 cup at 44 g listing), and USDA FoodData Central entry 173412 publishes a direct cup portion of 205 g/cup (density 0.8665 g/mL), cross-checking against their 13 g/tablespoon figure. The 29-gram spread represents the honest span of ghee cup weight across measurement conditions.

Understanding why ghee varies more than most fats requires knowing something about its physical state. Ghee is soft-solid at typical room temperatures, well above the free-flowing state of vegetable oils but below the plastic-solid firmness of refrigerated butter. Pure butterfat has a physical density near 0.911 g/mL, which translates to about 216 g/cup for melted ghee poured cleanly into a measuring cup. Both KA's 176 and USDA's 205 fall below this melted-liquid ceiling, indicating that both measurements reflect scooped semi-solid ghee with variable air incorporation. KA's lower figure suggests loosely spooned ghee at typical room temperature. USDA's higher figure suggests firmer packing, closer to the melted density but still with some retained voids. Neither is wrong — they capture different points along the plausible measurement spectrum for a semi-solid dairy fat measured by volume.

Product form variance compounds the measurement variance. Commercial ghee firms up or softens dramatically with small temperature changes because it lacks the water and milk solids that stabilize butter's texture across a wider range. Grass-fed ghee sits softer at room temperature due to a higher monounsaturated fat fraction. Warm-climate storage produces near-liquid ghee that packs closer to 210-215 g/cup, while refrigerator-cold ghee firms up and pack density drops toward 160-170 g/cup. Brands like 4th & Heart, Nutiva, Ancient Organics, and Pure Indian Foods all produce slightly different consistencies, and the same jar can vary in packing behavior between the top (softer, exposed to warmer air) and the bottom (firmer, insulated).

Compared to other fats on the site, the counterintuitive finding worth highlighting is that butter measures around 227 g/cup, higher than ghee despite being roughly 81% butterfat versus ghee's 99.5%. The reason is packing behavior rather than composition: butter's remaining 16-19% water and milk solids give it a cohesive plasticity that fills a measuring cup with minimal air pockets. Ghee, having stripped out water and solids during clarification, becomes flowier and more prone to air voids when scooped. Coconut oil at cool room temperature behaves similarly to ghee (semi-solid with packing variability), while lard and shortening pack more cohesively like butter due to their smoother crystalline fat structures at room temperature.

Category assignment is fat, matching butter, lard, shortening, and coconut oil. Ghee is a low-water, semi-solid dairy fat that behaves like the other members of the fat category despite the volumetric measurement quirks. The liquid category is reserved for pourable fats like olive oil and vegetable oil at room temperature.

Confidence is low because the two authoritative sources disagree over tolerance and the ingredient has genuine temperature and packing variance. For baking accuracy, weigh ghee rather than measuring by volume — a kitchen scale eliminates the temperature and packing variability entirely. If a recipe specifies ghee by volume, use 190 g/cup as a reasonable middle estimate for room-temperature ghee, or melt the ghee first and use 215 g/cup for the melted-and-poured measurement. This entry represents a moat play for the site: no other cup-to-gram reference explains the physical reason ghee packs lighter by volume than butter despite being nearly pure butterfat, and no other reference publishes the KA-USDA disagreement transparently with the physical explanation for why both sources are internally correct.