How Many Tablespoons in a Cup?

Multiply the cups by 16. That factor is built into the US system: a cup holds 8 fluid ounces, and every fluid ounce is 2 tablespoons.

For 3/4 cup of olive oil, the math is 3/4 × 16 = 12 tablespoons. For 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk, it is 24 tablespoons, which shows why a cup measure beats counting spoons once amounts get big.

Thirds leave a piece of a spoon. One third of a cup is 5 1/3 tablespoons, and a third of a tablespoon is exactly 1 teaspoon, so measure 5 tablespoons and add 1 teaspoon.

A US cup is 236.6 ml, while British, Australian and Canadian recipes use a metric cup of 250 ml. Their spoons are metric as well, so the number of tablespoons in a cup stops being a whole number.

Australia uses the biggest tablespoon, at 20 ml. An Australian cup holds 12 1/2 tablespoons, and "2 tablespoons of oil" in an Australian recipe means 40 ml, not the 30 ml a US set gives.

The 240 ml cup printed on US nutrition labels splits evenly into 16 tablespoons of 15 ml each.

Cutting a recipe in half or in quarters turns small cup amounts into spoon amounts. Work out the smaller amount in tablespoons first, then measure with spoons instead of guessing at a line on a cup.

• Half of 3/4 cup is 6 tablespoons.
• Half of 1 1/4 cups is 10 tablespoons.
• Half of 1/3 cup is 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons.
• A quarter of 1/3 cup is 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon.

Level each spoonful of flour or sugar with a straight edge. A slightly heaped spoon adds a little extra every time, and over eight or ten scoops the extra adds up. To go the other way, use tablespoons to cups.