Tahini

One US cup of tahini weighs between 240 and 256 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 tahini paste, sesame paste, sesame butter, tahina, tahin.

Two sources 6.5% apart, over the 5% tolerance for the fat category, so this entry publishes a range. USDA FDC 170189 (Seeds, sesame butter, tahini, from roasted and toasted kernels, most common type) publishes a cup at 240 g and a tablespoon at 15 g, and the two are exactly proportional at sixteen tablespoons per cup, giving 1.0144 g/ml with no rounding drift. This internal consistency indicates the two figures are one density recorded twice rather than two measurements.

King Arthur's Ingredient Weight Chart gives 128 g per half cup, implying 256 g per cup or 1.0820 g/ml. Tahini is placed in the fat category alongside peanut butter and coconut oil because its measurement behaviour is fat-like: a plastic paste at room temperature that fills a cup without meaningful compaction. It is roughly 55% oil by weight with the balance in ground sesame solids, and the physics of measuring it is closer to peanut butter than to liquid coconut milk.

The 6.5% source disagreement reflects a genuine property of tahini that no other ingredient in this dataset shows to the same degree: it separates dramatically on standing. A jar left undisturbed for weeks develops a distinct top layer of nearly pure sesame oil and a stiff, dense sediment of sesame solids at the bottom. Measured before stirring, a cup scooped from the top could weigh as little as 210 g (mostly oil at about 0.92 g/ml), and a cup scraped from the bottom could exceed 280 g.

Recipes universally specify well-stirred tahini, and both source figures are presumably for the stirred state, but even a well-stirred jar retains some vertical variation in composition and the exact fat-to-solid ratio at the point of measurement affects the density. Roasted and unroasted tahini have slightly different densities. USDA publishes three distinct records: FDC 170189 (roasted and toasted, 240 g/cup, most common commercial type), FDC 169406 (unroasted with non-chemically removed seed coat, 224 g/cup), and FDC 169410 (raw and stone ground).

Roasting drives off moisture and slightly increases oil content by weight percentage, which raises density. This entry uses the roasted figure because it matches the standard commercial product sold under the tahini name in Western markets. Unhulled or wholegrain tahini (made from unblanched sesame seeds with the skins intact) is a distinct product with earthier flavour and coarser texture, though most publishing converters treat it as the same weight per cup as hulled tahini in the absence of separate published data.

No standards body publishes a bulk density for tahini. Codex Alimentarius has no dedicated standard for sesame paste products, and the Middle Eastern regional standards (SFDA in Saudi Arabia, Israeli SI 269) specify composition and hygiene requirements rather than physical density. Two sources only, and the range is published because no third source arbitrates between USDA's tighter, internally consistent figure and King Arthur's heavier chart figure.