Pinto beans

One US cup of pinto beans weighs 193 grams (6.8 ounces). Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.52 cups.

Also called dried pinto beans, dry pinto beans, pintos, frijoles pintos.

Dried beans, lentils and peas compared: cup weights side by side, the source behind each, and why they differ.

A cup of dry pinto beans weighs 193 g (6.8 oz). USDA, the USDA Food Buying Guide and America's Test Kitchen fall within 6.4% of each other, so this entry publishes USDA's figure.

Pinto beans are a medium-sized, oval variety of the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), beige with reddish-brown speckles that fade to an even pinkish brown when cooked. They are the usual bean for refried beans, charro beans and much Tex-Mex chili, and one of the most widely grown dry beans in the United States.

USDA SR Legacy "Beans, pinto, mature seeds, raw" (FDC 175199) gives 1 cup = 193 g at 11.3% water. The USDA Food Buying Guide, whose pinto entry includes USDA Foods, gives 1 lb dry as about 2 3/8 cups, 191 g a cup. America's Test Kitchen's Texas-Style Pinto Beans calls for "1 pound (2 ½ cups) dried pinto beans", 181 g a cup. The spread is 6.4%, inside the 10% tolerance for whole seeds, and two of the three agree within 1%. The America's Test Kitchen figure is a rounded cup count for a whole pound, which is why it lands lowest.

The physical check: Paixão, Corrêa and colleagues (2020, Bioscience Journal) measured a Brazilian bean of the closely related carioca type (cultivar BRSMG Majestoso) at 779 to 831 kg per cubic metre in bulk while drying it, the higher figure at the drier end of their range, which is still wetter than store beans. A poured cup at 831 kg per cubic metre weighs 197 g, so USDA's 193 g matches a cup filled loosely and leveled. Size explains where pintos sit among the beans: they weigh less per cup than small navy beans (208 g), more than large kidney beans (184 g), and about the same as black beans (194 g). A measuring cup is small next to a bean, and the bigger the bean, the more air its walls leave around it.

Cooked: USDA's boiled pinto bean record (NDB 16043) weighs a cup at 171 g. That is a single source, so it is given here rather than published as a second state. The Bean Institute counts a one-pound bag of dry beans as about 6 cups cooked and drained.

Practical guidance: use 193 g per cup of dry pinto beans, 97 g per half cup and 48 g per quarter cup; a 1 lb bag holds about 2 1/3 cups. Use about 171 g per cup of cooked, drained beans. Pick dry beans over for small stones and rinse them. Soak them overnight, or quick-soak them by boiling for a few minutes and resting an hour, before cooking, or cook them unsoaked for longer. For refried beans, weigh the dry beans, since the cooked and mashed volume depends on how much liquid goes back in.