Minced shallots

One US cup of minced shallots weighs 160 grams (5.6 ounces). Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.62 cups.

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

A cup of minced or finely chopped shallots weighs about 160 g (5.6 oz), a tablespoon 10 g and a teaspoon 3.3 g. USDA and the Culinary Institute of America agree within 5%, and King Arthur Baking's 156 g for a cup of sliced shallots agrees as well.

Shallots are a small, mild member of the onion family, with copper or grey-pink skin over purple-tinged layers, often split into two or more cloves. They are minced for vinaigrettes, pan sauces, beurre blanc and mignonette, and sliced for frying into crisp shallots or for salads and quick pickles. Recipes give them by the shallot, by the tablespoon minced or by the cup sliced.

USDA's record for raw shallots weighs a tablespoon chopped at 10 g, 160 g a cup. The CIA's conversion chart weighs a teaspoon minced at 3.5 g, 168 g a cup, and a medium shallot as about 2 tablespoons minced, 20 g, which is the same 160 g a cup. King Arthur's chart lists peeled, sliced shallots at 1 cup = 5 1/2 oz = 156 g. The three are within 7.7%, inside the 10% this site allows for chopped produce, so this site publishes USDA's 160 g, with medium confidence because USDA's tablespoon is given to the whole gram and King Arthur's figure is for slices rather than mince.

Other sources weigh whole shallots rather than a measured cup. America's Test Kitchen sizes a small shallot at 1/2 oz (14 g) for 1 tablespoon minced, a medium at 1 oz (28 g) for 3 tablespoons and a large at 1 1/2 oz (42 g) for 4 tablespoons; Milk Street gives a large peeled shallot of 71 g as about half a cup chopped. These say how much a shallot yields, with the volume rounded, and are listed without figures. Norway's measurement brochure gives 55 g a decilitre but marks it as taken from a similar food, so it is listed without a figure too.

The physical check: shallot flesh is firm and layered and nearly as dense as water. Minced into small pieces, it packs like coarse wet sand and fills about two-thirds of the spoon, 0.68 g/mL, which is where USDA and the CIA land. Diced onion on this site weighs 113 to 172 g a cup, about the same, because the pieces behave alike; the shallot's finer mince and firmer flesh put it near the top of that range. Thin slices are curved strips that bend into one another, and King Arthur's 156 g shows they pack about as closely as mince.

Practical guidance: use 160 g a cup, 40 g a quarter cup, 10 g a tablespoon and about 3.3 g a teaspoon for minced shallots; for sliced shallots, 156 g a cup is close enough. A medium shallot gives about 2 to 3 tablespoons minced, 20 to 30 g, but shallots vary threefold in size, from 14 to 42 g in ATK's sizing, so when a recipe says one shallot, a tablespoon measure is the better guide. For a vinaigrette or a sauce where the shallot is the main aromatic, weigh it.