How to convert Wet Cooking Ingredient – Milliliters to Cups, Spoons, Pints and Gallons

As a cook or chef, at some point you may have run out of options when it comes to measuring your kitchen materials and ingredients, especially since you don’t have a scale to use. This can be a big hurdle for many chefs, so we can give you some ideas on how to measure wet ingredients without the need for a scale.

Using a measuring spoon

The volume of a standard scoop is 15 ml, although the size may vary. There are some scoops with 10ml volume capacity, these are newer European scoops. The 15ml scoops are mostly older European, Canadian and American spoons. There are also some 20ml variants that are from Australia. In recent times, 10 ml spoons have become increasingly popular, especially in Europe. For tiny measurements, teaspoons are a great option and typically hold between 4.5ml and 5ml.

SPOON SIZES:

Standard Spoon (Europe, Canada, Great Britain, USA): 15 ml = 0.507 fl oz

New spoons (mainly in Europe): 10 ml = 0.34 fl oz

Australian spoon: 20 ml = 0.68 fl oz

Teaspoon: 4.5 – 5 ml = 0.15 – 0.17 fl oz

So depending on the volume of milk, water, or oil you want to measure, you can choose and mix different sizes of spoons from the options above. If the ingredients in your recipe are in liters, then remember that 1000 ml is equal to 1 liter. So, if you have to put 200 ml of milk in your pancake mix, and you want to do it without a scale or measuring cup, make sure you have a standard spoon (most likely a 10 ml European spoon since is the most popular) and then you should measure 20 tablespoons (10 ml of spoons multiplied by 20 is 200 ml of milk).

However, using spoons may take longer if you are cooking large quantities, so you may want to opt for a better alternative.

Improvise with water bottles

Instead of throwing that empty water bottle in the trash, it can be used for measuring purposes when scales are not available. Most tabletop water bottles come in different sizes and shapes, however there is less to worry about shape and more about volume. Volumes can be easily seen on the bottle label, they are usually in milliliters (ml) and liters. If you have a small empty 500 ml water bottle and you need to add 2 liters of milk to your mix, you know that you have to pour 4 bottles of 500 ml each.

However, if you have mugs at your disposal, keep in mind that these also vary in volume.

EU cup = 240 ml = 8.11 oz, metric cup = 250 ml = 8.45 oz, imperial cup (UK) = 284 ml = 9.60 oz. So make sure you know how much you are pouring.

Pints, ounces and gallons

Your recipes may come with ingredients that will require you to measure in pints, ounces, and gallons, so it is wise to know the conversion unit. In a pint you have exactly 0.473176 liters, which is about 0.5 L. So you must know how many bottles of water to use to get to a pint. In terms of gallons, each gallon is about 3.78541 liters, about 3.8 liters. But you may not have the need to measure volumes like these, unless you intend to cook for hundreds of people. Ounces are units of weight, but there is a fluid ounce as a unit of volume, 1 US fluid ounce equals 29.57 milliliters and 1 L equals 33.914 fluid ounces.

INGREDIENT CONVERSIONS FOR WET AND LIQUID COOKING

Liquid conversions from milliliters (liters) to cups, spoons, fluid ounces, pints, and gallons for bulky, wet cooking ingredients: milk, water, oil.