Cookbook | Ingredients | Units of measurement

1 liter measuring cup

The liter (AE) or litre (BE), abbreviated l (or sometimes 'L' in the US, Canada and Australia), is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1000 ml, also known as 1000 cm³ (informally cc). The litre is a bit larger than a US liquid quart. One liter of pure water weighs 1 kilogram at 4°Celsius.

As many recipes have been roughly converted from one system to another, a similarly approximate conversion back may yield the original recipe. When converting recipes from one system to another, quantities should always be rounded to the nearest reasonable unit to avoid awkward measurements, e.g. 11½ ounces and 347 grams should be rounded off to 12 ounces and 350 grams respectively, and so on.