Every kitchen runs into the same three moments: the recipe says one thing, your measuring cups say another, and the pantry is missing the one ingredient in the middle. This page puts all three on one printable sheet: 8 volume equivalents from teaspoons to a gallon, 6 weight conversions, 4 oven temperatures in both dials, 6 substitutions for the moment the pantry runs out, and a 10-row grocery list grouped by aisle. Everything here is free, standard measure only, and prints on one page. The blank recipe card on this site is its natural partner: the card holds the recipe, this chart holds the math.
How to use this page: print at 100% scale (the site chrome drops out on paper). Tape the sheet inside a cabinet door or stick it to the fridge with a magnet. When a recipe calls for a measure you don't own, read across; when the pantry is missing something, check the substitution table before driving to the store. The blank lines are for the conversions your own kitchen actually uses, which is the list worth keeping.
The volume column covers the measures that appear in most written recipes, teaspoon through gallon. Weight and oven rows carry "about" where the number is a close rounding, because that's what a chart taped to a cabinet needs to be: close enough to cook from, small enough to read while stirring. Nothing here is brand-specific or recipe-specific; these are the standard equivalents every measuring spoon and cup set is built on.
Matchbook Labs · free printable
Kitchen conversions & grocery list
Kitchen: Kept where:
Volume (US)
| 3 teaspoons | = 1 tablespoon |
| 4 tablespoons | = 1/4 cup |
| 5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon | = 1/3 cup |
| 8 tablespoons | = 1/2 cup |
| 16 tablespoons | = 1 cup |
| 1 cup | = 8 fluid ounces |
| 2 cups | = 1 pint |
| 4 cups | = 1 quart |
| 4 quarts | = 1 gallon |
Write your own odd ones here:
Weight (about)
| 1 ounce | ≈ 28 grams |
| 100 grams | ≈ 3.5 ounces |
| 8 ounces | = 1/2 pound |
| 16 ounces | = 1 pound |
| 1 pound | ≈ 454 grams |
| 1 kilogram | ≈ 2.2 pounds |
Oven, F → C (about)
Close roundings for written recipes, not lab values. When a recipe gives both dials, trust the one it was written for.
Substitutions — 6 common swaps, test once
| Recipe calls for | Swap |
|---|---|
| 1 cup buttermilk | 1 cup milk + 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice; rest 5 minutes |
| 1 teaspoon baking powder | 1/4 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar |
| 1 cup self-rising flour | 1 cup flour + 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder + 1/4 teaspoon salt |
| 1 cup brown sugar | 1 cup white sugar + 1 tablespoon molasses |
| 1 cup melted butter | about 3/4 cup neutral oil; texture shifts a little, so test once |
| flour, for thickening | half as much cornstarch, mixed with cold water first |
Swaps change the outcome a little. Test one before a big dinner, and write the swap you used on the recipe card so next time it is the recipe. For allergies, cook from a recipe written for the allergy.
Grocery list — grouped by aisle, walk it once
Produce
Dairy & eggs
Pantry & dry goods
Other
Copy from the recipe cards before you shop, then walk the store in this order once and stop backtracking. The full binder carries the 48-row version across two pages.
Fits A4 and US Letter at 100%. Grayscale prints fine.
These are habits, take or leave, and the kind that keep this chart in use instead of in a drawer:
The chart answers the measuring question; the grocery list answers the shopping one. What neither answers is where the recipe itself lives, and that's the gap this sheet was cut from. The full Heirloom Recipe Binder keeps 48 blank write-in recipe cards, a 48-row index, holiday menus, passed-down story pages, and the two-page versions of these same conversion charts and grocery lists in one printed kit. This page is the single-page sample of that system: if the chart ends up taped in the cabinet and the list ends up on the fridge, the binder is the version where they stop being loose papers.
Heirloom Recipe Binder, 41 pages →41 write-in pages: 48 recipe cards, index, holiday menus, conversion charts, grocery lists. A4 + US Letter, instant download.