Tablespoons and Teaspoons Around the World

Spoon sizes are not universal

Cooks often assume that a tablespoon and a teaspoon are universal, yet the definitions differ between countries. The differences are small for a teaspoon and noticeable for a tablespoon. Because spoons are used for strongly flavored ingredients such as baking powder, salt and spices, the wrong size can affect taste more than a mistake with a cup of flour.

The safest habit is to look at where a recipe comes from, and to keep the teaspoon and tablespoon sets you own in view, because many sets are stamped with their milliliter sizes.

The US tablespoon and teaspoon

In the United States, a tablespoon is 14.7868 mL, usually written as about 14.79 mL, and a teaspoon is 4.92892 mL, about 4.93 mL. A tablespoon holds exactly three teaspoons, and sixteen tablespoons make one US cup of 236.588 mL. That makes the US tablespoon half a US fluid ounce.

US nutrition labels use a rounded teaspoon of exactly 5 mL, which is why label serving sizes look tidier than real kitchen spoons.

In practice, this means a set of US measuring spoons usually marked as ¼, ½, 1 teaspoon and 1 tablespoon can be used in most recipes, whichever country they came from, with the exception of the 20 mL case below.

Metric spoons

The metric system rounds the numbers: a metric teaspoon is 5 mL and a metric tablespoon is 15 mL. This is the usual standard for modern recipes in the UK, Canada and New Zealand, and many cooks in the United States also own metric-labeled spoons. The tablespoon is again three teaspoons.

The difference from the US spoon is small. A metric tablespoon is 0.21 mL larger, or about 1.4 percent. For a single spoon that is invisible; for 8 tablespoons it adds up to under 2 mL.

If you have a mixed set of spoons, look for the milliliter marking. A spoon engraved 15 mL is metric, and one engraved 1 tbsp without a metric size is probably a US spoon.

The 20 mL Australian tablespoon

Australia is the notable exception: its tablespoon is 20 mL, which is four metric teaspoons rather than three. That is a third bigger than a 15 mL tablespoon.

Suppose a recipe asks for 3 tablespoons of oil. With a 15 mL spoon you add 45 mL. With a 20 mL spoon you add 60 mL. For oil in a salad dressing, the difference is minor. For baking powder, bicarbonate of soda or salt, it can ruin the result, which is why it is worth checking where a recipe was written. The teaspoon is 5 mL in Australia, as in other metric countries.

One practical solution is to convert the spoons to milliliters first. Three Australian tablespoons are 60 mL, which is about 4.06 US tablespoons (60 ÷ 14.787), so four US tablespoons is a close match. To swap an Australian tablespoon for a 15 mL spoon, use 1⅓ spoons, which in practice means one tablespoon plus one teaspoon.

Comparison at a glance

• US teaspoon: about 4.93 mL
• Metric teaspoon: 5 mL
• US tablespoon: about 14.79 mL
• Metric tablespoon: 15 mL
• Australian tablespoon: 20 mL

For teaspoons, the US and metric sizes agree to within 2 percent and can safely be treated as the same. For tablespoons, the US and metric spoons are close enough to swap in most dishes, while the Australian one should be treated separately.

As a rule of thumb, the stronger the ingredient, the more the spoon size matters. A teaspoon of salt, baking powder or chili flakes is much easier to get wrong than a tablespoon of water.

Cutlery spoons are not measuring spoons

Spoons from a cutlery drawer vary widely in size. A dessert spoon, soup spoon or table spoon at dinner can hold very different amounts, so they are poor substitutes for a calibrated set. Recipes that say “tablespoon” mean a measuring spoon, filled to the brim and leveled with a knife unless the recipe says “heaped”.

A heaped spoon is not a precise measure, and it can hold noticeably more than a level one, depending on the ingredient.

In a similar way, a “pinch”, a “dash” or a “knob” of butter has no defined size. Treat them as approximate and adjust to taste.

Converting spoons to cups, milliliters and grams

Using the US sizes, 1 cup equals 16 tablespoons or 48 teaspoons. So 4 tablespoons make ¼ cup, and 8 make ½ cup. In metric terms, 1 metric cup of 250 mL equals about 16.7 metric tablespoons.

To estimate weights, divide the weight per cup by 16. At 120 g per US cup, a level tablespoon of flour is 120 ÷ 16, or 7.5 g. At 227 g per cup, a tablespoon of butter is about 14.2 g. A cooking converter such as this one supports US and metric (5 mL and 15 mL) spoons directly, and you can use its milliliter results to deal with Australian spoons by hand.

To convert milliliters back to spoons, divide by 15 for metric tablespoons, by 5 for metric teaspoons and by 20 for Australian tablespoons. So 100 mL of liquid is 6⅔ metric tablespoons, or exactly 5 Australian ones.