US Cups to Dashes (cup to dash)

1 US cup equals 384 dashes exactly.

1 US cup = 384 dashes

How to convert US cups to dashes

To convert US cups to dashes, multiply the number of US cups by 384. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply dashes by 0.002604166667 (rounded).

dashes = US cups × 384

Example: 10 US cups = 3,840 dashes.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

Approximate value. Standards for the dash varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About these units

US Cup (cup)

US customaryCurrent unit

One sixteenth of a US gallon, 236.588 mL (8 US fluid ounces). The standard US recipe cup.

Cups began as household drinking vessels, not scientific units, which is why they remain the messiest measures in the kitchen. The US customary cup was defined by slicing up the gallon: half a pint, or eight US fluid ounces, about 236.6 milliliters. Unlike the larger units, nobody ever fixed it to a physical vessel, so it exists only as a fraction of the gallon.

The customary cup is not the only American cup. For nutrition labels, US regulation defines a cup as exactly 240 milliliters, a rounder figure that sits slightly above the customary size. Packaged foods therefore list a serving in the legal cup while a measuring cup from the hardware store follows the customary definition. The gap is 3.4 milliliters, which hardly matters for soup but can matter in baking. Cup measures also hide the weight of dry ingredients, since a cup of sifted flour and a cup of packed flour differ substantially, which is why much of the world prefers grams.

1 US cup = 0.2365882365 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Cup (unit); NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures

Dash (dash)

Cooking & barTraditional unit (still used in some regions)Approximate value

A quick shake from a bottle; the conventional measure is 1/8 of a teaspoon (about 0.62 mL).

Recipes asking for a dash of bitters or a dash of salt rely on a word that simply means a quick, sudden motion, here a brief shake or splash from a bottle or shaker. There is no legal definition, and Wikipedia's article on cooking weights and measures lists the dash among the drop, smidgen and pinch as the units most commonly understood to be approximate. Early cookbooks relied on such vague amounts until Fannie Farmer pushed exact volume measures in her 1896 book.

Where a number is wanted, the convention is that a dash is one eighth of a US teaspoon, twice a pinch and half a saltspoon. One eighth of a US teaspoon is about 0.62 mL, the figure used here. The same Wikipedia table prints 0.46 mL, which comes from a fluid ounce fraction and does not match its own teaspoon fraction, so that smaller number is best treated as a slip. In real use a dash from a bar bottle depends on the nozzle and the wrist, so the conventional size is only a guide.

1 dash = 0.0006161151992 liters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Cooking weights and measures; Wikipedia: Pinch (unit)

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