Conversion from Centiliters to US Dry pints

Information about the Centiliter (cL)

The centilitre is a unit of volume equal to one hundredth of a litre, or ten millilitres. Its symbol is cL, and the lower-case cl is also used. Unlike most centi-prefixed units it has a real commercial life, because it happens to be the size that suits drink labelling, and in several countries it is the form printed on almost every bottle.

Drink containers are its main employment. In France, Belgium, Italy and Spain a wine bottle is labelled 75 cL, a beer 33 or 50 cL, a soft drink 33 cL, and a spirits miniature 5 cL. The same containers carry 750 ml and 330 ml in Britain, Germany and most of the English-speaking world, which is why identical bottles appear to bear different numbers depending on where they were filled.

Bar measures follow the same split. A standard spirit serving is 4 cL in France and 2 or 4 cL in Germany and Austria, while Britain pours 25 or 35 millilitres and the United States uses fluid ounces. European cocktail recipes are written in centilitres throughout, so a classic proportion of six parts to three to one appears as 6 cL, 3 cL and 1 cL, which reads more cleanly than the millilitre equivalents.

There is no legal difference between the forms. European Union labelling rules accept millilitres, centilitres and litres, so the choice is a matter of national typographic habit rather than of regulation. Where centilitres are used, the number on a bottle stays between one and a hundred for every ordinary container size, which is exactly the range a prefix is supposed to deliver.

The unit is also easy to picture. Ten millilitres is two teaspoons, a generous mouthful of water, or the dose measure supplied with a bottle of cough syrup. A tablespoon is one and a half centilitres, an espresso is about three, and a wine glass poured to a standard measure is twelve to fifteen.

Converting between systems needs some care because a centilitre falls between the two customary small measures. It is 0.338 United States fluid ounces and 0.352 imperial fluid ounces, so neither reads as a round number, and drink volumes converted between Europe and North America almost always end up rounded rather than exact.

One centilitre equals 10 millilitres, 0.01 litres, about 0.338 US fluid ounces, or about 0.352 imperial fluid ounces.

Information about the US Dry pint (pt)

The United States dry pint is a unit of volume equal to 550.610471 millilitres, or 33.6 cubic inches. Its symbol is pt. It belongs to a separate American measuring system used for produce and grain rather than for liquids, and it is about sixteen per cent larger than the United States liquid pint of 473 millilitres.

Two parallel chains exist because two kinds of goods were once measured differently. Liquids descend from the wine gallon of 231 cubic inches, while dry goods descend from the Winchester bushel of 2150.42 cubic inches, a corn measure standardised in medieval England. Dividing the bushel by four gives a peck, by thirty-two a dry quart, and by sixty-four a dry pint, and none of those figures has any relation to the liquid chain.

Berries are where the unit is still met. Blueberries, raspberries and strawberries are sold in American markets in pint and quart baskets, and the basket is a dry measure. A pint of blueberries is therefore 551 millilitres of fruit, not 473, and a shopper comparing that basket with a pint of cream is comparing two different quantities under one name.

Nothing on a label resolves the ambiguity. Both are written pt, both are called a pint, and the word gives no clue as to which chain is meant. In practice the contents decide: if it pours, it is liquid measure, and if it is heaped, it is dry. That rule is reliable but it is nowhere written down, which is why converted American recipes so often disagree with one another.

Its existence is a survival from selling by bulk. Before cheap accurate scales, grain, apples, potatoes and shellfish were sold by filling a stamped measure and levelling it off, and the whole dry chain from bushel down to pint served that trade. Almost all of it has now been replaced by weight, and United States produce regulations increasingly specify pounds instead.

For conversion, the safest approach is to abandon the name entirely. A dry pint is 551 millilitres, a dry quart 1101, a peck 8.81 litres and a bushel 35.24. Writing the metric figure removes an ambiguity that the English word carries and cannot shed.

One United States dry pint equals 550.61 millilitres, 33.6 cubic inches, half a US dry quart, or about 1.164 US liquid pints.