Lard

One US cup of lard weighs 205 grams (7.2 ounces). Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.49 cups.

Also called pork lard, rendered pork fat, leaf lard, manteca, Armour lard.

Lard weighs 205 g per US cup (7.2 oz) and about 13 g per tablespoon, a density of 0.867 g/mL. USDA's cup and tablespoon and the Armour and Farmer John labels agree within 2%. King Arthur's 113 g per half cup would make a cup of lard heavier than solid lard itself and is rejected.

Lard is rendered pork fat: 100% fat, no water, by USDA's analysis. The shelf-stable blocks and tubs sold in US supermarkets, Armour, Morrell Snow Cap, Goya and Farmer John, are lard and hydrogenated lard with antioxidants, firm and white at room temperature. Leaf lard, from the fat around the kidneys, is the prized pastry fat, and unhydrogenated tubs such as EPIC and Fatworks are softer. Lard makes flaky pie crusts, tender tamales and tortillas, and it is the frying fat of much traditional cooking.

USDA SR Legacy "Lard" (FDC 171401) lists 1 tablespoon at 12.8 g and 1 cup at 205 g, two portions that agree to within a fifth of a gram per cup. Armour's 16-oz pack and Farmer John's tub label 1 tablespoon at 13 g, 208 g per cup, the same figure rounded to the gram. EPIC's rendered pork fat labels 14 g, 224 g per cup; that is outside the 5% tolerance for fats and looks like 13.5 g rounded up, so it is not used here.

The physical check runs through the fat's own density. Fat is lighter than water. The Codex Alimentarius standard for named animal fats (CXS 211-1999) puts melted lard at 0.896-0.904 g/mL at 40 °C, which is 212-214 g per cup of melted lard. Solid lard at room temperature is a few percent denser, about 0.92 g/mL, but a measuring cup packed with a stiff solid fat never fills perfectly: small pockets of air stay in the corners and between spoonfuls. USDA's 205 g is about 94% of the solid fat's weight in that volume, which is what a well-packed cup of a firm fat looks like.

King Arthur's chart lists lard at 1/2 cup = 4 oz = 113 g. That is 227 g per cup, 0.959 g/mL, heavier than lard can be even with no air in the cup at all. Half a cup is 4 fluid ounces, and 113 g is 4 weight ounces: the fluid ounce read as a weight ounce, the same mistake behind King Arthur's 227 g cup of water. The figure is recorded as a rejected source with its own correction page.

Practical guidance: a 1-lb pack holds 454 g, about 2 1/4 cups; 1/2 cup is 102 g, 1/4 cup 51 g and 1 tablespoon 13 g. Packing a solid fat into a cup is the least accurate measurement in the kitchen, so weigh lard, especially for pastry. When swapping lard for butter, remember butter is about 80% fat and 16% water while lard is all fat: 100 g of butter is matched by about 80 g of lard plus a little extra liquid. Melted lard measures at about 212 g per cup.

The following published figures for lard are rejected here, with the physics or standards reasoning behind each rejection on its own page:

• King Arthur Baking Ingredient Weight Chart: 227 g per cup