Cooking conversion chart
| Measure | Millilitres | Tablespoons | Also |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon | 4.93 | ⅓ tbsp | 5 ml metric |
| 1 tablespoon | 14.8 | 1 tbsp | 3 tsp · 15 ml metric |
| ⅛ cup | 29.6 | 2 tbsp | 1 fl oz |
| ¼ cup | 59.1 | 4 tbsp | 2 fl oz |
| ⅓ cup | 78.9 | 5⅓ tbsp | — |
| ½ cup | 118.3 | 8 tbsp | 4 fl oz |
| ⅔ cup | 157.7 | 10⅔ tbsp | — |
| ¾ cup | 177.4 | 12 tbsp | 6 fl oz |
| 1 cup | 236.6 | 16 tbsp | 8 fl oz |
| 1 pint (US) | 473.2 | 32 tbsp | 2 cups |
| 1 quart (US) | 946.4 | — | 4 cups |
| 1 litre | 1000 | — | 4.23 cups |
Three teaspoons make a tablespoon and sixteen tablespoons make a US cup of 236.6 ml. A metric tablespoon is 15 ml and an Australian one is 20 ml, which is the conversion most likely to catch you out.
How to use the conversion chart
The Australian tablespoon is the trap. At 20 ml it is a third larger than the 15 ml used almost everywhere else, so an Australian recipe calling for two tablespoons of a strong flavouring. Baking soda, salt, vanilla; will be noticeably off if measured with a European spoon set, and the error runs the other way for someone in Sydney cooking from a British book. Teaspoons are safer: 5 ml is close enough to universal that the difference rarely matters.
Questions
Three, in the US, UK and metric systems. An Australian tablespoon is four teaspoons.
Sixteen US tablespoons in a US cup.
236.6 ml for a US cup, 250 ml for a metric cup, 284 ml for an old imperial one.
Close enough; 15 ml against 14.8 ml. The Australian 20 ml tablespoon is the real outlier.
Weigh for baking, where ratios matter. Measure for cooking, where they usually do not.