Pint

A pint is a unit of volume for liquids, and sometimes for berries. There are two sizes. The US pint is 16 fluid ounces, or 473 ml. The British, or imperial, pint is 20 imperial fluid ounces, or 568 ml. That is about a fifth more. Two pints make a quart in both systems.

How to use it

Measure	US	Imperial (UK, Ireland)
1 pint	473 ml, 2 cups	568 ml
½ pint	237 ml, 1 cup	284 ml
¼ pint	118 ml, ½ cup	142 ml (a gill)
2 pints	946 ml, 1 quart	1.14 liters

To work out which pint a recipe means, look at where it was written. American recipes use US pints. British and Irish recipes from before the 1970s use imperial pints, and many newer ones give milliliters as well. Canada used the imperial pint in older recipes too.

In the US, a "pint" of berries or cherry tomatoes is a small basket that holds a dry pint, about 550 ml. By weight, a pint of strawberries is roughly 300 to 350 g (about ¾ lb), and a pint of blueberries is about 350 g.

Common mistakes

• Using a US pint in a British recipe for custard, batter or a sauce. You would be about 95 ml (about 6½ tablespoons) short of liquid, which makes a custard too firm or a batter too thick.
• Thinking 1 pint is 2 cups everywhere. That is only true for US cups and US pints.
• Buying a "pint" of cream in the UK. Cream there is sold in milliliters, often 300 ml or 600 ml cartons, which are close to half an imperial pint and a full one.

In recipes

You will see "1 pint heavy cream" in American recipes, which is 2 cups or 473 ml. British recipes say "½ pint double cream" (284 ml) or "1 pint milk" (568 ml). "Pt" is short for pint. When a recipe gives milliliters, use those.

Where it comes from

The US kept an older English wine measure for liquids after independence. In 1824 Britain replaced its measures with the imperial system, which used a larger gallon, so the British pint grew and the American pint did not.