oh, my metric heart

have been baking today, mostly from recipes from america and the quantities have been sending me batty. mostly in australian recipes things that have no form (flour, sugar, milk, spices and the like) are done in cup or spoon measurements. things that do have form (butter, cheese etc) are done by weight, although quite often flour and sugar are given by weight and milk given in mls etc. but you know what i mean.

half a cup of butter is totally useless to me. how do you get the butter into a cup measurement? and how can this be an effective way of getting the same quantity each time? I have worked out what a stick of butter is (125g), so that doesn't throw me. but a stick plus 5 tablespoons of butter sends me into a total lather.

so I found the following conversions on O Chef:

Butter Measurement Translation Chart to Defeat Nefarious Recipe Writers

Volume	Sticks	Weight: US & British	Weight: Metric
1 Tbsp	1/8	1/2 oz	14 g
2 Tbsp	1/4	1 oz	25 g
3 Tbsp	3/8	1-1/2 oz	42 g
1/4 cup	1/2	2 oz	57 g
5 Tbsp	5/8	2-1/2 oz	72 g
6 Tbsp	3/4	3 oz	85 g
7 Tbsp	7/8	3/1/2 oz	98 g
1/2 cup	1	1/4 pound	113 g
9 Tbsp	1-1/8	4-1/2 oz	126 g
10 Tbsp	1-1/4	5 oz	142 g
11 Tbsp	1-3/8	5-1/2 oz	155 g
3/4 cup	1-1/2	6 oz	170 g
13 Tbsp	1-5/8	6-1/2 oz	184 g
14 Tbsp	1-3/4	7 oz	198 g
15 Tbsp	1-7/8	7-1/2 oz	212 g
1 cup	2	1/2 pound	227 g
17 Tbsp	1-1/8	8-1/2 oz	241 g
18 Tbsp	1-1/4	9 oz	255 g
19 Tbsp	1-3/8	9-1/2 oz	270 g
1-1/4 cups	1-1/2	10 oz	284 g
21 Tbsp	1-5/8	10-1/2 oz	298 g
22 Tbsp	1-3/4	11 oz	312 g
23 Tbsp	1-7/8	11-1/2 oz	327 g
1-1/2 cups	3	3/4 pound	341 g
25 Tbsp	1-1/8	12-1/2 oz	355 g
26 Tbsp	1-1/4	13 oz	370 g
27 Tbsp	1-3/8	13-1/2 oz	384 g
1-3/4 cups	1-1/2	14 oz	398 g
29 Tbsp	1-5/8	14-1/2 oz	412 g
30 Tbsp	1-3/4	15 oz	427 g
31 Tbsp	1-7/8	15-1/2 oz	441 g
2 cups	4	1 pound	454 g

this site also works well for the ounces/pounds/grams dilemma, as well as volumes and temperatures.