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    Home » Baking vocabulary

    Published on: February 5, 2021 by Janice; Updated on: February 23, 2022 2 Comments

    Baking recipe abbreviations

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    Some recipe writers will spell out the units of measure in their recipe, others may use abbreviations. Here's a rundown of the commonly used baking abbreviations you need to know to tackle most recipes!

    A scale with measuring cups and spoons to illustrate some commonly used baking abbreviations in recipes.

    Abbreviations are commonly used in recipes on the internet and in cookbooks, which can be confusing if you aren't familiar with them.

    Consult this list if you run into an abbreviation you aren't familiar with and bookmark it for later when you need it most! And remember that, when in doubt, you can also find a list of baking vocabulary and French baking terms if you aren't sure about some of the terminology!

    Volumes

    • teaspoon is abbreviated to tsp, sometimes simply as t
    • tablespoon is abbreviated to tbsp, sometimes simply as T
    • cup is sometimes abbreviated as C or c., but I think this is less common than the others on the list
    • millilitre is abbreviated to mL or ml (most in the scientific community use a capital L to avoid confusion between the letter l and the number 1)
    • litre is abbreviated to L (most in the scientific community use a capital L to avoid confusion between the letter l and the number 1)
    • fluid ounces are abbreviated to fl oz
    • pint is abbreviated as pt
    • quart is abbreviated as qt
    • gallon is abbreviated as gal

    Weights

    • ounces are abbreviated to oz
    • grams are abbreviated to g
    • kilograms are abbreviated to kg
    • pounds are abbreviated to lb

    Lengths

    Europeans follow the metric system, where lengths and distances are expressed according to the metre, whereas North Americans tend to measure distances according to inches and feet:

    • inches are abbreviated as in or as "
    • centimetres are abbreviated as cm
    • millimetres are abbreviated as mm

    Temperatures

    Europeans tend to favour expressing oven temperatures as degrees Celsius, while North Americans favour degrees Fahrenheit:

    • degrees can be written with the symbol º
    • Fahrenheit is abbreviated F
    • Celsius is abbreviated C

    Time

    Time is also abbreviated in many recipes

    • minutes are abbreviated as min
    • hours are abbreviated as h

    Other abbreviations you might need

    If you bake sourdough, you might want to know that sometimes sourdough is abbreviated "SD" and that "DO" is the abbreviation for the Dutch oven that home bakers use to bake sourdough breads.

    Now that you are familiar with the commonly abbreviations used in baking recipes and cookbooks, you can also consult the baking conversions chart if you ever need to convert recipes from volumes to weights, or vice versa!

    More Baking vocabulary

    • Baking vocabulary
    • Fruit desserts
    • Dictionary of French baking terms and English translations
    • Macaroon vs macaron
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    Baking resources

  • Baking conversion charts
  • Baking ingredients and pantry staples
  • Baking substitutions
  • Common baking conversions
  • Choosing baking pans
  • How to measure ingredients for baking
  • Mixing methods
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    Comments

    1. Pete says

      February 06, 2021 at 4:17 am

      It would be unusual here in Europe to see millilitres written with a capital L. It’s pretty much universally written ‘ml’. 👍

      Reply
      • Janice says

        February 06, 2021 at 11:12 am

        Thanks for your comment! I will modify the text to reflect that! In Canada, all our packaging uses a capital L for litres and mL for millilitres. From a science perspective, the international conventions for litre is the capital L and also l. Most scientists adopted the capital L to avoid any confusion between l and 1. It used to be that millilitres were abbreviated with a little m and a little l but the l was cursive font to avoid any confusion with the number 1. All that to say that the little l is still widely used, even though the scientific community made a push for the capital L.

        Reply

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