After Kayjones' answer, I think I need to know also.

1 cup = 8oz
2 cups = 16oz
1 lb = 16ox
2 cups per pound
5 x 2 = 10 cups in a 5lb bag

What am I doing wrong?

Probably you are right - I just entered her question into google and that's what came up.

Check out WikiAnswers - it also says 20 cups if I read it correctly.

How many cups of flour is in a 5 lb bag?

Answer
Four cups of flour equal 1 lb., so there are 20 cups of flour in a 5 lb. bag.
Also, two cups of sugar equal 1 lb., so there are 10 cups of sugar in a 5 lb. bag.

Now I'm even more confused... LOL

Answer

Four cups of flour equal 1 lb., so there are 20 cups of flour in a 5 lb. bag.
Also, two cups of sugar equal 1 lb., so there are 10 cups of sugar in a 5 lb. bag.

Ounces in volume, which is what a measuring cup measures (volume) is not the same as ounces for weight.

Angela, I calculated based on a fluid ounce cup. But dry foods don't weight the same and have a different rate of settling. I just found that on the net. I never did understand why a cup is not a cup is not a cup. LOL

So, sugar settles less than flour and therefore has greater volume. That's the difference in Kayjones' answer, which is 20.

Buy what you like.
Fill it as full as you can.
Put the rest of bag in pantry or freezer for flour.

I don't have a clue what it holds! I'd say it must be close to the 20 cups.

You'd laugh if you saw my canisters. They are the old Owens-Illinois Green depression glass close to these.
They don't hold large amounts!

Here is a link that might be useful: Green canisters

3 1/2 cups of Flour equal a pound. So 17 1/2 cups of flour equal 5 pounds.

Here's a good conversion chart link and it tells you the weight conversion for flour and sugar.

Here is a link that might be useful: conversion chart

If you were cooking, I would say: get a scale. W/ that large an amount, and considering that flour can chance a recipe drastically, I wouldn't want to count on the concept that I had sifted the flour the same way the folks who did the chart, did.

But for storage, the chart should work well enough. And you should decide, do you want to hold exactly 5 lb, or do you want it to hold the little bit left over before it runs out, AND the 5 lb?

if you go for exactly 5 lb, you don't have to worry that the flour at the bottom might never get used up. But you'll have to wait until it's all used up to put in the new bag.

I have a ten pound sack here and the side of the bag says there are 151 servings (1/4 cup servings)

divide 151 by 4 and you get 37 cups.

Divide that in half for a five pound bag and you get (rounded up) 19 cups.

So I say 19 cups in a five pound bag.

Check out WikiAnswers - it also says 20 cups if I read it correctly.
How many cups of flour is in a 5 lb bag?
Answer
Four cups of flour equal 1 lb., so there are 20 cups of flour in a 5 lb. bag.
Also, two cups of sugar equal 1 lb., so there are 10 cups of sugar in a 5 lb. bag.

Now I'm really lost...aren't 5 LB bags of flour and sugar both about the same size?

I probably won't rest until I measure them both out for myself. This has me stumped for sure.

Sue

I'm thinking the same thing Sue! LOL
Post the results if you get them before I do!

The size of the bag is insignificant. They are both generally the same size because 5lbs is 5lbs. However, it took about 20 cups of flour to fill that 5lb bag but only 10 cups of sugar to fill it.

I'm saying about 20 cups because every website (5 or 6 that I checked) is slightly different. Just got off the phone with Gold Medal. They say "just over 17 cups." Some of the websites say that, too.

But, please understand the size of the bags would be roughly the same for sugar and flour. They are weighed by volume up to the desired number of pounds. Think of it in terms of sugar being granules, and you can hold just one in your hand. But, can you hold just one granule of flour? Nope, because there are no granules. It's really just a powdery substance and much smaller than a granule of sugar. Therefore, look at like filling a bag with oranges and a bag with walnuts. Wouldn't it take a heck of lot more walnuts to fill that same size bag? And wouldn't it take a heck of lot more walnuts to amount to 5lbs?

Well, I do have an unopened bag of sugar and can measure that, but much to my disappointment, I don't have a full bag of flour handy. I found that out last night when I wanted to make some home made yeast cinnamon rolls.

Maybe someone else here has a full bag of flour and is curious enough to take the time to make a mess of measuring it....hint, hint

Sue

The thing with measuring flour by volume, Sue, is that there can still be several different answers depending upon on how well packed the measuring cup is. That is why a 5# bag of flour is roughly the same size as that of sugar, they have it fairly well packed. We add air when we open it and dump that flour into a canister so it takes up more room unless we tap the container to remove the air.

I just looked at the serving size on the bag of flour(1/4 cup), then approx. how many servings per bag(75) and since there are 4- 1/4 cups in a whole cup, I divided 75 by 4. Approx. 18.75 cups in 5 LB of flour :)

Just some thoughts. I design packaging machines for the food industry for a living. Here is what I can tell you based on the original question.

The problem here is

a) people confuse units of weight and units of volume easily because many of the English Standard units use the same for both. It works when you measure water, because that is the underlying assumption. When you have something else with a different bulk density and you are measuring volume, the same "stuff" doesn't look right any more.

b) different flours even have different bulk densities. Whole wheat is different than oat flour, is different than rice flour, etc.

To answer the question, most US multi-purpose flour is 35 lbs/cu ft. So...

There are 16 cups in a gallon and 7.48052 gallons in a cubic foot. So 119.68832 cups in a cubic foot. Divide this by 35 lbs/cu ft means there are typically ~ 3.42 cups per pound of Multi-purpose flour or 17.1 cups per 5 pound bag.

If you measure it by hand, it's more likely to be ~18 cups because of filling error and the fact that most manufacturer's slightly overfill their bags because they don't want to wind up in trouble for filling short.

So, the best answer is...there are usually 18 cups in a 5 lb. bag of flour, but could be more or less for different flour types.

Haha, bumping this thread 7 years later isn't the quick answer that was requested.

But, Snidely, useful information is always useful. :-)

none. I don't store my cups in my flour. :P

"But, Snidely, useful information is always useful."

Yes, but there's no useful information in this thread. Lots of un-useful information.

A search for - cups 5lbs flour - answers the question. Or, measuring or holding up the flour bag and comparing its dimensions to storage containers also answers the question.

Try finding this thread in a month (unlikely) but if you do, I'd still recommend doing a search.

8oz to a cup is a fluid measure, basically the weight of one cup of water. That does not necessarily apply to flour. Flour weighs less than water, and the density of flour can vary. it weighs the most when it is settled and compacted. Fluff it up by sifting and it may weigh slightly less. You'll have to do the measurements to find out.

First, place an empty measuring cup on a food scale, note its weight, and then fill with flour and weigh again. The difference in the two weights is the weight of one cup of flour.

If your scale has a zero adjust with enough range to tare the cup, place the empty cup on the scale and zero it, then proceed as before. When you weigh the cup of flour, the weight of the cup has been adjusted for and the reading will the only the flour. This method eliminates the math and is more accurate since on;y one measurement is needed.

If you are lucky, the weight of one cup of flour may be on the label, or the label may give the volume of its contents.

Sometimes, recipes get mixed up and the author may state use 8 fl oz of an ingredient when was was meant was a volume measurement of one cup. Confusing weight with volume is a problem.

Some things just fly over your head, Snidely. I wasn't commenting on the usefulness of any info provided in the responses. I was simply saying that it doesn't matter how old a discussion thread is if there is information that a new viewer might find useful and helpful. (Including the suggestion to do a Google search for answers.)

A lame thread that has passed on to the dead thread graveyard should stay there.

There's a practical convention followed in most forums that suggests the resurrecting of old threads is rarely if ever a good idea. That's something I agree with. Sorry if my views aren't acceptable to you, knowing that will keep me up tonight.

I don't agree that a 10 lb. bag of flour is equal in size to a 10 lb. bag of sugar - I think that it's larger.

o j

But there aren't 5 pound bags anymore! Now flour is sold in 4# bags!

Didn't the person who brought this thread from 2011 to now add some relevant information?

o j

Just couldn't resist this. This thread is old, but this catalog isn't.
http://www.starcrest.com/product/kitchen/storage+and+containers/floursugarcontainereach.do
And of course we know about the 5lb/4lb thing. But after you use a couple cups of flour, what difference does that make?
Sue

My 15-cup Rubbermaid canister holds 5-lbs of white flour. The 10-cup container easily holds the 4-lb bag of granulated sugar. Many food container manufacturers do not provide this kind of practical, useful information to shoppers.

I have a bread baking drawer with plastic containers. The big containers hold 5lb bags of cornmeal, rye, wheat, bran....little containers 3x5 hold flax seed, wild rice, split peas....

Dollar Tree has some great containers. Then some are Tupperware.

Did someone comment that the packaging has been suffering from the "shrinkage" disease, recently?
Boy, have they ever!

ole joyful

Listen to Larry Eagen and Jem Dandy (above) if you want an answer. His answer is based on math and science. What people are not understanding is that and cup is a VOLUME measurement, and pounds is a WEIGHT measurement; so, 8 oz. of water or liquid in a recipe is one cup, but this does not apply to solid ingredients like flour. One cup might weigh more or less than water. That is why the best bakers WEIGH their volumes of flour, sugar, etc, to adhere to a recipe. It sounds complicated, but not really. The average bag of flour has 18-20 cups of flour.

I realize this is an old thread, and a lot incorrect information from people who confused dry measure (volume) with weight measurements. I teach this in a basic food and nutrition class all the time, and maybe the added information will be helpful to someone. Old threads aren't "old" to new readers. ;-)

I agree with leany, and a few others -

The average 5# bag of flour has approximately 18-20 cups.

The problem comes from how people measure a dry volume cup (pack or fluff), AND the simple fact there are no manufacturing standards for the size of a measuring cup (or measuring spoons, either), so that inexpensive set made in China from the Dollar Store, or those decorative heart-shaped measuring cups, may be slightly smaller/larger than the expensive stainless steel, professional-grade set ordered from King Arthur Flour.

But weighing a "cup" on a kitchen scale doesn't make it any easier because the "experts" don't agree on how much a "cup" of flour weighs. Add to that the differences in the weight of flour from season-to-season. It's heavier from moisture it absorbs in a humid environment of spring, and dryer in the winter.

As a bonus for reading this far (also from my classes, and I include recipes in the handout).

Approximate amounts of flour to make....

---loaf of bread - 3-4 cups

---12 muffins - 1-3/4 cups

---8-10 pancakes - 1 cup

---3 dz. cookies - 2 cups

---Eight 9" tortillas - 2 c.

---5 servings of homemade noodles - 2 to 2-1/2 cups

---12-20 biscuits - 2 cups

---Recipe for Crepes - 1 cup

---Wacky Cake - 1-1/2 cup (8-inch sq. pan)

-Grainlady

I've got an issue can't find answer. How many 3/4 cups in 5 gallons? Dry weight. Thanks so much if you can help me!

According to a conversion chart I found on-line: http://www.asknumbers.com/GallonToCup.aspx

1-gallon dry, U.S. = 18.618355 cups

Multiply by 5 = 93.09 (rounded)

Divided by .75 = 124.12 (rounded) 3/4 cups per 5-gallons

That same link has a large conversion chart for gallon/s to cups for liquids if you are also interested in that (just scroll down a little).

It would also be wiser to convert the contents of the gallon/s to weight, then weigh a 3/4 cup amount of whatever it is you are measuring, and divide it by that weight AND measure it by weight, for more accuracy. The problem comes from the inaccurate measure using volume, and there are NO standards for the size of a "cup", nor any way to account for how people fill a portion (3/4 c. in this case) whether it's something that can be packed like brown sugar, or needs to be fluffed, like flour. As it says at the link above:

Gallon is an imperial and U.S. customary unit. There is one type of gallon in imperial system and 2 types (liquid and dry) in united states customary system. It is widely used in daily life, such as measuring the fuel efficiency as miles per gallon, etc. The abbreviation is "gal".

Cup is a volume unit and used mostly in cooking to measure liquid and bulk, dry foods. There is no international standard for cup sizes but mostly united states customary and metric cups are used and they are different in sizes.

This is a huge help. Thank you so much!!!!! Especially for the quick response and helpful added tips!! Thanks again!

I don't know if you are measuring liquid, but for liquids:

There are 4 litres (1000ml. ea.) in a gallon

250ml = 1 cup.

4 cups in a litre (250ml. x 4 = 1000ml)

So each litre has 4 cups, and 4 litres (= 1 gallon) has 16 cups.

It would be helpful to know what you are measuring

This thread is full of a lot of misinformation, it really needs to go. For recent comments:

There are 236 ml in an 8oz US cup, 3.8 liters to the US gallon. It's not an even equivalence as leany suggests.

Just under 5 US quarts to the Imperial gallon (it's about 20% bigger), but that's pretty much irrelevant these days as the UK (where Imperial gallons were once used) is a metric (or sometimes dual) place by in large, gasoline is sold by the liter.

It took over 8 years, angelaid, but buried in the responses are both right and wrong answers to your question. Pick the right one and you can go ahead and buy those storage containers now.

I'm enjoying this thread. Just looked at the pastrywiz site linked and found out that 175 mL Canadian is the same as 190 ml Australian and 115 grams Canadian equals 125 grams Australian. Check today off from my list of days to learn something. And so much for the argument that metric is so superior.

You misread that page, cynic. A gram is gram, a milliliter is a milliliter, etc. I think that page is suggesting what is used in those countries to approximate OUR measurements. The metric system is wholly unambiguous, it's based on measurable physical properties of specified things.

I've lived in a country that uses the metric system - it's so much easier to use. And, of course, it's all that's used in the world of science. Wonder why?

The metric system is far superior to the mixed up system we use. Here's a clue - every country uses it EXCEPT the US and those two other dynamic world powers Myanmar and Liberia.

"

bestlawn

After Kayjones' answer, I think I need to know also.

1 cup = 8oz
2 cups = 16oz
1 lb = 16ox
2 cups per pound
5 x 2 = 10 cups in a 5lb bag

What am I doing wrong?"

I believe that 8 oz to a cup is liquid measure; It applies to liquids that are near the density of water. Also, some things do not weight the same as water, but in that case, it is understood that 8oz may refer to a measure of volume and not weight. This measure does not apply to stuff like flour, shelled corn, and corn-meal, and certainly would not apply to light, fluffy items like the sweetener, Equal.

One way to find out is to measure. For example, suppose you have a 5 lb bag of flour. Measure the weight of one cup of flour and compute the number of cups in the bag. You'll need a fairly accurate kitchen scale.

Measure the weight of the empty measuring cup, fill it with flour up to the one cup line and weigh again. The difference between the two weights is the weight of one cup of flour. It'll probably be less than a pound. For sake of example, lets say the weight of one cup of flour was 6 oz. The 5 lb of flour has 5 lb x 16 oz/lb or 80 oz of flour. The volume of the bag would be (80 oz)/ (6 oz/cup of flour) or 13.33 cups of flour.

jemdandy - You're right, sorta.... It's a huge mistake trying to convert dry volume cup measurements to an exact weight, especially when people confuse liquid measurements and dry measurements, and dry measurements with scale measurements. But there are other reasons.

1. There are NO standards for the actual size of a "cup" to manufacture a dry 1-cup measuring cup in the United States. You will find they vary in size if you were to test enough varieties of them - especially when you get into novelty shapes (such as a heart-shaped dry measuring cup made with ceramics - and you discover your recipe was altered/failed because that "cup" was bigger/smaller than your usual measuring cup).

2. Take a 1-cup dry measuring cup (one that has a flat rim and you can level off the contents) and fill it by dipping it in the flour and dragging it up the side of the bag/container (a common method) and weigh that amount on a scale. Now, aerate/fluff the flour and spoon it into the cup and level (the preferred method) - and measure that amount. Years ago it was recommended you sift the flour before measuring it, so try that method and measure it. Some people bang the cup of flour to settle it, then add more flour before leveling it off, or tap it with the leveling devise to settle the flour and add more - and both are incorrect methods which will add anywhere from 10-20% more flour per cup. Some people don't bother leveling - just give it a shake and eyeball it.... Every cup of flour measured by each and every person weighs something different and can be as much as 1-2 ounces of weight different. This is why when you give 10 people the same brownie recipe to make for a bake sale, the finished brownies will vary greatly due to the use of volume measuring tools and the way people use them, and don't even get me started with the inaccuracy of baking pan sizes.....

***The reason recipes work using this highly inaccurate method of measurements (cups and spoons) is because it's a ratio of one ingredient to another more than the exact measure. So you can make a cake, as an example, using a professional-grade stainless steel dry measuring cup, a coffee or tea cup out of your cabinet, a canning jar (an old favorite before measuring cups were readily available), or any other container you like, as your dry measuring devise as long as you keep to the standard ratio of ingredients using the same measuring devise, and don't fill the baking pan more than 3/4 full of batter. So you can make one cake or a hundred cakes by sticking to the ratio of ingredients. A standard plain cake has, by measure (whether by dry measure or scaled measure), one-third as much fat as sugar; two-thirds as much milk as sugar; and about three times as much flour as liquid (bakers ratios or percentages). This is why you might not get the same results using grandma's recipe. She may have used a large coffee cup or a mason jar for measuring, while you are using a cheap set made in China from the Dollar Store that are much smaller than what grandma used.

3. Your "let's say the weight of one cup of flour was 6 oz." is off already because there are no standards for the weight of a cup of flour, just some "suggested" amounts. King Arthur Flour used a 4.5 oz. (weighed on a scale) measure for a cup of flour in their first cookbook and changed their mind in another to 5 oz., while other "experts" use a 5 or 5.5 oz. measure for a cup of flour. And now your 6 oz. arbitrary measurement.... Who's "right"?

The weight per cup of different kinds of flour vary as well.... A cup of whole wheat flour weighs more than a cup of National brand of bleached all-purpose flour, which weighs more than a cup of Southern All-Purpose flour, which weighs more than cake flour.

4. This brings us to the moisture content of flour, which is unstable and will contribute to the weight - or lack of it - of a "cup" of flour. This is why we give a generalization of 18-20 cups of flour for 5-pounds. Even if you use a scale weight as the "exact measurement for a cup of flour", it too will be flawed due to the amount of moisture in the flour, which varies from brand-to-brand, bag-to-bag and home-to-home. And for this exact reason, amounts of flour in a recipe are just a good (or bad) guess. When you make yeast bread and the flour is really dry in the winter, you may need more flour than the recipe calls for, while during months with high humidity, you may need a lot less flour, because we add flour to yeast bread according to the "feel" of the dough, not the stated amount in the recipe. Add to that, the amount of protein in flour, which also varies from brand-to-brand and bag-to-bag. The higher the amount of protein in flour, the more moisture it will absorb. So if you happen to normally use Pillsbury All-Purpose Flour in a recipe and you switch to King Arthur All-Purpose, you will need less King Arthur because it has a much higher protein content than Pillsbury. If you substitute whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour in a recipe, you may need to take 1 T. of flour from each cup.

Snidely, you are right, I was not exact in my description however I am assuming dSuggs is not measuring for a detailed chemical reaction , so I gave her the easiest rounded off equivalents,which is how I calculate it quickly when cooking or baking, etc. That would be about a tablespoon difference per cup.

wow... I wonder what kind of containers she bought 11 years ago????

There are 3-1/3 cups of flour per pound and about 17 cups per 5-lb bag.

Ended up with these:

https://www.amazon.com/Komax-Biokips-Food-Storage-Ingredients/dp/B073HH6KYJ/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1541330275&sr=1-1&keywords=Biokips

LOL

Nice, Angela! Square, so much more space saving than all those round ones, one always sees.

Thanks for the update.

Moni

Angelaid, is that you? I haven't seen your "name" in a long time! I have to get used to name changes, I guess; maybe you have posted lately and I haven't recognized your name. :) Nice to see you again.