Cooking Measures Table
| Measure | Exact ml | Rounded | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1/4 tsp | 1.23 | 1.2 | dash-level, yeast batches |
| 1/2 tsp | 2.46 | 2.5 | salt and spice increments |
| 1 tsp | 4.93 | 4.9 | = 1/3 tbsp; Australian tsp is 5 ml |
| 1/2 tbsp | 7.39 | 7.4 | – |
| 1 tbsp | 14.79 | 14.8 | = 3 tsp; Australia 20 ml |
| 1/8 cup | 29.57 | 29.6 | = 1 fl oz |
| 1/4 cup | 59.15 | 59.1 | = 4 tbsp |
| 1/3 cup | 78.86 | 78.9 | = 5 tbsp + 1 tsp |
| 1/2 cup | 118.29 | 118 | = 8 tbsp |
| 2/3 cup | 157.73 | 158 | – |
| 3/4 cup | 177.44 | 177 | = 12 tbsp |
| 1 cup | 236.59 | 237 | US legal nutrition cup is 240 ml |
| 1 fl oz | 29.57 | 29.6 | = 29.57 ml, volume not weight |
| 1 pint | 473.18 | 473 | = 2 cups = 16 fl oz |
| 1 quart | 946.35 | 946 | = 4 cups; UK imperial quart is 1136 ml |
| 1 gallon | 3785.41 | 3785 | = 16 cups; UK imperial gallon is 4546 ml |
Kitchen conversion tables usually round until the math stops working: 1 cup = 240 ml is close enough for soup and wrong enough to break caramel. This table derives every measure exactly from the US liquid pint of 473.176473 ml fixed by NIST - a cup is precisely half a pint, a tablespoon a sixteenth, a teaspoon a forty-eighth - then adds a rounded column for when you are holding a spoon, not scaling a formula.
The fraction ladder matters as much as the values: 1/3 cup is 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon, 2/3 cup is double that, and the measures nest perfectly because they share one definition. When a recipe from another country misbehaves, the culprit is rarely arithmetic - it is which cup the author meant.
How to use
- Type a measure or note to filter - 'cup', 'tbsp', 'quart' and 'australian' all find their rows.
- Click any measure to copy it, handy for recipe cards and scaling notes.
- Use the exact column when multiplying a recipe; use the rounded column at the counter - nobody measures 14.79 ml.
Frequently asked questions
Why are there three different values for a cup?
The US customary cup measures 236.6 ml (half the NIST pint). The US legal cup - what FDA nutrition labels use - is exactly 240 ml, chosen for arithmetic. And the metric cup of 250 ml is standard in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Baking is chemistry at 5-6 percent tolerance, which is why an Australian recipe baked with US cups runs sweet and wet - check which cup the author meant before blaming your oven.
Is a fluid ounce the same as an ounce?
No, and confusing them is the classic recipe bug: the fluid ounce is volume (29.57 ml), the ounce is weight (28.35 g). A fluid ounce of water weighs almost exactly one ounce - a historical accident that makes water recipes forgiving - but a fluid ounce of honey weighs 1.5 ounces, and a fluid ounce of flour weighs barely half. Volume measures liquids; weight measures everything you want to bake well.
Why does my Australian tablespoon measure more?
Australia standardized its tablespoon at 20 ml - four teaspoons - while the US tablespoon is 14.79 ml (three teaspoons of 4.93). A US recipe made with Australian spoons adds a third more fat and leavening per spoonful. The teaspoon survives at 5 ml nearly everywhere, which is why the teaspoon, not the tablespoon, is the only truly international kitchen unit.
How do I scale a recipe that mixes measures?
Convert everything to milliliters with the exact column, scale, then convert back to the friendliest unit: 1.5 cups doubled is 709.8 ml, which is 3 cups minus 1 tablespoon - the ladder of 3 teaspoons, 16 tablespoons and 2 cups per pint always closes exactly. That closure is the point of deriving from the pint: no rounding drift accumulates, ever.