One tablespoon of sour cream is 15 grams, so converting tablespoons of sour cream to grams means multiplying by 15. That factor is specific to this ingredient — it comes from its density, not from any relationship between the two units.
Water is the yardstick: 1 mL of it weighs 1 g. Sour cream comes in at 1.0144 g per mL, or 101.4% of water, which is why a cup of it is 240 g rather than 236.6 g. Volume and weight only line up for water, and only in metric.
A level tablespoon of sour cream is 15 g, which puts a teaspoon at 5 g and a tablespoon and a half — the quantity recipes are fondest of — at 22.5 g. Levelling twice is where the error comes from, so the scale is the faster instrument once the quantity passes a couple of spoons.
Grams are the unit this conversion is really for. A domestic scale resolves to a gram, which is 0.417% of a cup of sour cream, so weighing gets an accuracy no measuring cup can reach. A 500 g pack of it is 2.083 cups, and a 1 kg pack 4.167.
What the number depends on: Thick enough that it has to be spooned and levelled, which is where the measuring error creeps in.
The formula
tablespoons- The amount of sour cream you are converting, in tablespoons
15- Grams per tablespoon for sour cream, from its density of 1.0144 g/mL
grams- The equivalent quantity in grams
How it works, step by step
- Enter the quantity in tablespoons.
- It is multiplied by 15, the grams-per-tablespoon figure for sour cream.
- The result appears in grams, with a second reading in oz beneath it.
- Use the measure table if you want a standard recipe quantity rather than a number you type in.
Worked examples
2 tbsp of sour cream in grams
Take 2 tbsp of sour cream: 2 × 15 gives 30 grams. Doubling the batch takes it to 60 grams, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
4 tbsp of sour cream in grams
Take 4 tbsp of sour cream: 4 × 15 gives 60 grams. Doubling the batch takes it to 120 grams, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
12 tbsp of sour cream in grams
Take 12 tbsp of sour cream: 12 × 15 gives 180 grams. Doubling the batch takes it to 360 grams, because the relationship is a straight proportion once the density is known.
How to read your score
Frequently asked questions
How many grams are in 1 tbsp of sour cream?
One tablespoon of sour cream is 15 grams. Half that quantity is 7.5 grams and double it is 30 grams, so the figure scales straight up and down — there is no offset in this conversion, only the factor.
Why is a cup of sour cream not 236 g like water?
Because weight per cup depends on what is in the cup. Sour cream has a density of 1.0144 g per mL where water has 1.00, so a cup of it weighs 240 g rather than 236.6 g. That is a difference of 3.4 g per cup, and it is the reason a single volume-to-weight factor cannot be applied to every ingredient.
Does how I measure it change the weight?
Barely. Sour cream does not compress, so a cup of it is 240 g however it is poured — within about 1%, which is inside the accuracy of a domestic scale. This is the group where measuring by volume is defensible.
Is a fluid ounce of sour cream the same as an ounce?
No. A fluid ounce is a volume — one eighth of a US cup, 29.57 mL — and an ounce is a weight. One fluid ounce of sour cream weighs 1.058 oz, so the two readings differ by 5.82%. They coincide only for something with the density of water, and then only roughly.
Is this a US cup or a metric cup?
US customary: 236.59 mL, which is the cup every US recipe means. A metric cup is 250 mL, so the same cup of sour cream would weigh 253.61 g instead of 240 g — 13.6 g more, or 5.67%. Australian and some European recipes use the metric cup, and the difference is large enough to matter in baking.
Do I need a scale for this, or will measuring cups do?
A scale, if the result matters. Volume measuring carries a spread of about 1% for sour cream — roughly 2.4 g on a 240 g cup — while a domestic scale is accurate to a gram or two. For anything where the ratio of ingredients drives the outcome, bread and pastry above all, weigh it.
How many tablespoons of sour cream is 500 g?
500 g of sour cream is 33.333 tablespoons — 0.0666667 tablespoons to one gram, so 500 × 0.0666667 = 33.333. Going that way is a division by 15, or a multiplication by 0.0666667 if you prefer.
Sour cream in tablespoons and grams
| Tablespoons | Grams | Unrounded |
|---|---|---|
| 1/2 tbsp | 7.5 g | 7.5 |
| 1 tbsp | 15 g | 15 |
| 2 tbsp | 30 g | 30 |
| 3 tbsp | 45 g | 45 |
| 4 tbsp | 60 g | 60 |
| 6 tbsp | 90 g | 90 |
| 8 tbsp | 120 g | 120 |
| 12 tbsp | 180 g | 180 |
| 16 tbsp | 240 g | 240 |
Based on 240 g per cup of sour cream. One tablespoon of sour cream is 15 grams.
| Measure | Grams | Ounces | Millilitres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup | 240 g | 8.47 oz | 236.6 mL |
| 1 tbsp | 15 g | 0.529 oz | 14.79 mL |
| 2 tsp | 10 g | 0.353 oz | 9.858 mL |
| 1 tsp | 5 g | 0.176 oz | 4.929 mL |
| 3/4 tsp | 3.75 g | 0.132 oz | 3.697 mL |
| 1/2 tsp | 2.5 g | 0.0882 oz | 2.464 mL |
| 1/4 tsp | 1.25 g | 0.0441 oz | 1.232 mL |
| 1/8 tsp | 0.625 g | 0.022 oz | 0.6161 mL |
US customary measures: 1 cup = 236.59 mL, 1 tbsp = 14.79 mL, 1 tsp = 4.93 mL.
| Ingredient | Grams per cup | Ounces per cup | Density (g/mL) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water | 236 g | 8.325 oz | 0.9975 |
| Heavy cream | 238 g | 8.395 oz | 1.006 |
| Vinegar | 239 g | 8.43 oz | 1.01 |
| Sour cream (this page) | 240 g | 8.466 oz | 1.014 |
| Tahini | 240 g | 8.466 oz | 1.014 |
| Half-and-half | 242 g | 8.536 oz | 1.023 |
| Egg whites | 243 g | 8.572 oz | 1.027 |
Ordered by weight. The spread across this group is why a single generic cups-to-grams factor cannot work.