Marinara Sauce
One US cup of marinara sauce weighs 250 grams (8.8 ounces). Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.40 cups.
Also called jarred marinara, marinara pasta sauce, pasta sauce, spaghetti sauce, tomato basil sauce, jarred pasta sauce.
Most sites print a number for a cup of marinara sauce and do not say where it came from. This page publishes 250 g (8.8 oz), names Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce (producer label), RAGÚ Old World Style Marinara Sauce (producer label), Classico Marinara with Plum Tomatoes & Olive Oil (producer label), Bertolli Traditional Marinara Sauce (producer label) and Newman's Own Marinara Pasta Sauce (producer label), and records the source that was checked against an independent standard and rejected.
| Volume | Grams | Ounces |
|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 250 g | 8.8 oz |
| 3/4 cup | 187.5 g | 6.6 oz |
| 2/3 cup | 166.7 g | 5.9 oz |
| 1/2 cup | 125 g | 4.4 oz |
| 1/3 cup | 83.3 g | 2.9 oz |
| 1/4 cup | 62.5 g | 2.2 oz |
| 1 tablespoon | 15.6 g | 0.55 oz |
| 1 teaspoon | 5.2 g | 0.18 oz |
Marinara Sauce ounces to grams and cups
| Weight | Grams | US cups |
|---|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28.3 g | 0.11 |
| 4 oz | 113.4 g | 0.45 |
| 8 oz | 226.8 g | 0.91 |
| 16 oz (1 lb) | 453.6 g | 1.81 |
Compared side by side
Tomato paste, puree, sauces, canned tomatoes, juice and ketchup compared: cup weights side by side, the source behind each, and why they differ.
Where this number comes from
Marinara sauce weighs 250 g per US cup (8.8 oz), a density of 1.057 g/mL. Rao's, Ragú, Classico and Bertolli label half a cup at 125 g and Newman's Own at 124 g. USDA's two records for ready-to-serve pasta sauce give 264 and 270 g per cup, which a sauce that is 88% water cannot weigh, and both are rejected here.
Marinara is a quick Italian-American tomato sauce: tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, onion and herbs, cooked briefly and sold in jars as the plainest of the pasta sauces. USDA's composition for jarred marinara and spaghetti sauce is 87-88% water, with 7-8% carbohydrate (about 5% sugars), 1.5% fat, 1.4% protein and some salt. That puts it close to tomato sauce, which is about 90% water.
The labels converge, with a caveat. FDA's reference amount for spaghetti sauce is 125 g (21 CFR 101.12), and four of the five brands print exactly that, so their agreement may partly be the reference amount rather than a measurement. Newman's Own at 124 g suggests a weighed figure. What settles it is the physics, which predicts the same number from USDA's own composition.
That check is the core of this entry. Dissolved sugars, tomato fibre and salt make a sauce denser than water; olive oil makes it lighter. At 88% water, the solids predict 1.04-1.05 g/mL, which is 246-250 g per cup. Tomato sauce, at about 90% water, measures 245 g per cup on this site; tomato puree 250 g. Marinara belongs in that company.
USDA SR Legacy "Sauce, pasta, spaghetti/marinara, ready-to-serve" (FDC 171192) lists a half-cup serving at 132 g, which is 264 g per cup and 1.116 g/mL. The newer Foundation record with the same name (FDC 332282) lists 135 g, which is 270 g per cup and 1.141 g/mL. Either would make marinara heavier per cup than tomato paste, which weighs 262 g and is only about 75% water. A liquid cannot gain weight by holding more water. Both half-cup portions look like serving weights rather than measured volumes, and both are recorded as rejected sources with their own correction pages.
Two other labels err the opposite way. Victoria and Carbone both print half a cup at 113 g, exactly 4 ounces, which is 226 g per cup and lighter than water. That is the fluid-ounce mistake, half a cup of 4 fluid ounces read as 4 weight ounces, and those figures are not used.
Chunky and sugary sauces should run a few grams heavier than thin, oily ones, but the spread between the brands that weigh their half cup is small, 124-125 g. King Arthur's chart has no marinara row.
Practical guidance: a 24-oz jar holds 680 g, about 2 3/4 cups; a 32-oz jar 907 g, about 3 2/3 cups. For a pound of pasta, 2 cups is 500 g. For a pizza base, use pizza sauce or weigh marinara: 1/4 cup is about 63 g.
The tomato products comparison page shows marinara beside tomato sauce, puree, paste, canned tomatoes, juice and ketchup.
Sources
Standard, spooned and leveled
- Rao's Homemade Marinara Sauce (producer label)250 g per cup8.8 ozBrand site: 1/2 cup (125 g), extrapolating to 250 g per US cup (density 1.057 g/mL).
- RAGÚ Old World Style Marinara Sauce (producer label)250 g per cup8.8 ozBrand site: 1/2 cup (125 g), 5 servings per container, extrapolating to 250 g per cup.
- Classico Marinara with Plum Tomatoes & Olive Oil (producer label)250 g per cup8.8 ozRetail nutrition label, 24-oz jar: 1/2 cup (125 g), extrapolating to 250 g per cup.
- Bertolli Traditional Marinara Sauce (producer label)250 g per cup8.8 ozRetail nutrition label, 24-oz jar: 1/2 cup (125 g), extrapolating to 250 g per cup.
- Newman's Own Marinara Pasta Sauce (producer label)248 g per cup8.7 ozRetail nutrition label, 24-oz jar: 1/2 cup (124 g), extrapolating to 248 g per cup (density 1.048 g/mL).
- USDA SR Legacy "Sauce, pasta, spaghetti/marinara, ready-to-serve" (FDC 171192)264 g per cup9.3 ozUSDA Standard Release lists 1 serving, 1/2 cup = 132 g (one reproduction of the record shows 128 g), extrapolating to 264 g per US cup and density 1.116 g/mL. Composition per 100 g: water 87.9 g, carbohydrate 7.4 g (sugars 4.9 g), fat 1.6 g, protein 1.4 g.Rejected. A sauce that is 88% water cannot weigh 1.116 g/mL. USDA's own composition for this record leaves about 12 g of solids per 100 g, mostly sugars, tomato fibre, oil and salt; those predict about 1.04-1.05 g/mL, which is 246-250 g per cup, and even if every gram of solids were as compact as dissolved salt the sauce would stay under 1.09 g/mL. 264 g per cup would make marinara heavier than tomato paste (262 g per cup), which is only about 75% water. The 132 g half cup reads as a serving weight, not a measured volume.
- USDA Foundation "Sauce, pasta, spaghetti/marinara, ready-to-serve" (FDC 332282)270 g per cup9.5 ozFoundation Foods record lists 1 serving, 1/2 cup = 135 g, extrapolating to 270 g per US cup and density 1.141 g/mL. Analysed composition per 100 g: water 87.4 g, carbohydrate 8.1 g, fat 1.5 g, protein 1.4 g.Rejected. Same physics as the SR Legacy record: at 87% water the density cannot pass about 1.05 g/mL, and 1.141 g/mL would make the sauce 3% heavier than tomato paste, which is 75% water. A 135 g half-cup serving is a serving weight, not a volume measured in a cup.
Corrections on this ingredient
The following published figures for marinara sauce are rejected here, with the physics or standards reasoning behind each rejection on its own page:
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