When it comes to cooking and baking, measuring ingredients precisely is extremely important for achieving the right results. Many recipes specify ingredient amounts in milliliters (mL), while measuring cups in the United States are labeled in cups, ounces, and sometimes milliliters. So if you need to convert 700 mL to cups for a recipe, how do you figure out that conversion?
The Quick Answer
700 mL is equal to 2.95 cups.
The Long Answer
First, it’s important to understand the basic units of volume measurement:
- 1 milliliter (mL) = 0.001 liters
- 1 liter (L) = 1000 milliliters
- 1 fluid ounce (fl oz) = 29.57 milliliters
- 1 cup = 8 fluid ounces
- 1 pint = 2 cups
- 1 quart = 2 pints
- 1 gallon = 4 quarts
So to break this down:
- 1000 mL = 1 L
- 1 cup = 8 fl oz = 236.588 mL
Armed with those conversion factors, we can now calculate how many cups are in 700 mL:
700 mL x (1 cup / 236.588 mL) = 2.95 cups
To break this down further:
- 700 mL / 236.588 mL per cup = 2.95 cups
So 700 mL is a little less than 3 cups. If you’re measuring out 700 mL of a liquid ingredient for a recipe, you’d measure out 2 full cups plus a little bit extra.
Why Conversion Accuracy Matters in Cooking
Being accurate with your cup measurements is critical for recipes to turn out right. Measuring mistakes could lead to a baking disaster or an inedible dinner. For example:
- Adding too much or too little liquid to a cake batter can result in dense, soggy cake or a dry, crumbly mess.
- Putting in too much oil or butter can make cookies spread too much and become flat and greasy.
- Not having the right ratio of wet to dry ingredients in pancake or crepe batter leads to lumpy pancakes that don’t cook properly.
- Using too little or too much yeast in bread dough prevents the dough from rising properly.
- Putting in too much curry powder or chili powder into a dish can overwhelm all the other flavors.
When baking recipes, you need to be precise with measurements down to the teaspoon or tablespoon. For cooking, you often have a bit more leeway, but you still want to be as accurate as possible.
Tips for Accurately Measuring Cups, Spoons, and Milliliters
Use these tips for accurately measuring wet or dry ingredients for recipes:
- When measuring milliliters, use a measuring cup, spoon, or syringe designed for measuring mL. Don’t try to estimate or convert in your head.
- To measure cups accurately, place a level cup into the ingredient and sweep off any excess with a straight edge. Don’t scoop or pack it in.
- For sticky ingredients like honey, peanut butter, or molasses, spray the measuring cup with nonstick spray first to make it easier to pour out all the ingredients cleanly.
- When measuring fractional cup amounts like 1/3 cup or 1/2 cup, use proper measuring cups designed for those fractions to get an accurate amount.
- For small amounts like teaspoons or tablespoons, use proper measuring spoons and level off the top.
- Use standard US measuring cups and spoons. Don’t use kitchenware designed for metric measurements.
- Use liquid measuring cups for wet ingredients and dry measuring cups for dry ingredients.
- Avoid trying to “eyeball” cup measurements unless you have a lot of experience baking. Even being a little off can mess up results.
Using a Scale for Accuracy
For even more precision, invest in a kitchen scale that can display both grams and ounces. This allows you to measure dry ingredients by weight instead of volume. So instead of measuring out 1 cup of flour, you’d measure out 120 grams of flour (the equivalent weight of 1 cup).
Weighing ingredients removes potential human error and variability from the measuring process. It also works better for very fine, powdery ingredients like flour or confectioners’ sugar, which compact and may result in too much when you measure by volume. A kitchen scale is the most accurate option for critical baking recipes.
Converting Between Units of Volume Measurement
Once you’re familiar with the basic volume conversions, you can use those relationships to convert between cups, fluid ounces, pints, quarts, gallons, milliliters, and liters. Here are some of the most common conversions:
- Cups to milliliters
- 1 cup = 236.588 mL
- 2 cups = 473.176 mL
- 3 cups = 709.764 mL
- Milliliters to cups
- 236.588 mL = 1 cup
- 473.176 mL = 2 cups
- 709.764 mL = 3 cups
- Cups to fluid ounces
- 1 cup = 8 fl oz
- 2 cups = 16 fl oz
- 3 cups = 24 fl oz
- Fluid ounces to cups
- 8 fl oz = 1 cup
- 16 fl oz = 2 cups
- 24 fl oz = 3 cups
- Cups to pints
- 1 cup = 0.5 pints
- 2 cups = 1 pint
- 4 cups = 2 pints
- Pints to cups
- 0.5 pints = 1 cup
- 1 pint = 2 cups
- 2 pints = 4 cups
- Cups to quarts
- 1 cup = 0.25 quarts
- 2 cups = 0.5 quarts
- 4 cups = 1 quart
- Quarts to cups
- 0.25 quarts = 1 cup
- 0.5 quarts = 2 cups
- 1 quart = 4 cups
- Cups to gallons
- 1 cup = 0.0625 gallons
- 4 cups = 0.25 gallons
- 8 cups = 0.5 gallons
- 16 cups = 1 gallon
- Gallons to cups
- 0.0625 gallons = 1 cup
- 0.25 gallons = 4 cups
- 0.5 gallons = 8 cups
- 1 gallon = 16 cups
- Milliliters to liters
- 1000 mL = 1L
- 500 mL = 0.5 L
- 250 mL = 0.25 L
- Liters to milliliters
- 1 L = 1000 mL
- 0.5 L = 500 mL
- 0.25 L = 250 mL
Once you know these basic conversions, you can convert any volume amount between units. Handy charts like this can help visualize the relationships:
| Unit | Teaspoons | Tablespoons | Fluid Ounces | Cups | Pints | Quarts | Gallons | Milliliters | Liters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Teaspoon | 1 | 1/3 | 1/6 | 1/48 | 1/96 | 1/192 | 1/768 | 5 mL | 0.005 |
| 1 Tablespoon | 3 | 1 | 1/2 | 1/16 | 1/32 | 1/64 | 1/256 | 15 mL | 0.015 |
| 1 Fluid Ounce | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1/8 | 1/16 | 1/32 | 1/128 | 30 mL | 0.03 |
| 1 Cup | 48 | 16 | 8 | 1 | 1/2 | 1/4 | 1/16 | 240 mL | 0.24 |
| 1 Pint | 96 | 32 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 1/2 | 1/8 | 470 mL | 0.47 |
| 1 Quart | 192 | 64 | 32 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1/4 | 950 mL | 0.95 |
| 1 Gallon | 768 | 256 | 128 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3,785 mL | 3.79 |
| 1 Milliliter | 1/5 | 1/15 | 1/30 | 1/240 | 1/480 | 1/960 | 1/3,785 | 1 | 0.001 |
| 1 Liter | 202 | 67 | 34 | 4.2 | 2.1 | 1.1 | 0.26 | 1,000 | 1 |
Using Volume Conversions in Recipes
Here are some examples of how you might need to convert between cups and milliliters when following recipes:
- A recipe calls for 250 mL (0.25 liters) of milk. You’ll need to measure out approximately 1 cup of milk.
- A recipe specifies 1.5 liters of vegetable broth. You’ll need to measure out approximately 6 cups of broth.
- You’re baking a cake recipe from Europe that requires 400 milliliters of canola oil. You’ll need to measure out about 1 2/3 cups of oil.
- A Canadian recipe says to use 5 milliliters of vanilla extract. You’ll measure out 1 teaspoon of extract.
- A recipe calls for 450 mL (0.45 liters) of honey. Measure out approximately 1 7/8 cups of honey.
- You need 75 mL of fresh lemon juice for a recipe. You’ll squeeze enough lemons to get around 5 tablespoons of juice.
As you can see, while it’s straightforward math to convert between cups and milliliters, the tricky part is that milliliter amounts often don’t convert perfectly into round cup measurements. This means you’ll need to round, estimate, and use your judgment based on the specific ingredient and recipe.
Tools to Help Convert Between Cups and Milliliters
To make conversions easier, you can use a few handy tools:
- Measuring cups that include both cup measurements and milliliters
- Online conversion calculators that you can search for “convert cups to milliliters”
- Conversion charts printed out or saved on your phone
- Apps like All-In-One Measuring Cup Pro that do conversions
So the next time you need to convert 700 mL to cups or vice versa, use these tips and tools to seamlessly switch between the units of measurement.
Conclusion
Converting between cups and milliliters is a common need when cooking and baking, especially when following recipes from different countries. The basic conversions are easy to remember: 1 cup = 236.588 mL and 1000 mL = 1 liter. But sometimes milliliters convert to awkward fractional cup measurements that require some rounding. Investing in good measuring tools, using charts and calculators, and practicing these conversions allows you to accurately translate volumes between cups and milliliters.
