How Many Tablespoons in a Pound?

Multiply the pounds by the number of tablespoons that one pound of the food fills. The multiplier in the formula above is for water. Pick an ingredient in the converter and it uses that food's own figure instead.

Bulk yeast is a good example. USDA lists a tablespoon of active dry yeast at 12 g, so a pound of it fills about 38 tablespoons, and a 4 oz jar about 9.4. That count tells you how many bakes a bulk package covers before you open it.

For the reverse, from a spoon count to a weight, see tablespoons to pounds.

Tablespoons are not the same size everywhere, and the table below lists the three you are likely to meet. A pound of water fills about 30.2 metric tablespoons, the size used in the UK, but only 22.7 of the larger Australian ones.

Check where a recipe comes from before you count spoons. With Australian tablespoons, the count per pound drops for every ingredient, from butter to flour.

A tablespoon holds a set volume, but a pound is a set weight, so the count changes with density. Heavy, compact foods give fewer spoonfuls per pound, and light, fluffy ones give many more.

Butter comes out near the water figure, while all-purpose flour gives about 58 tablespoons per pound. Whole blueberries fall in between at about 49, though few cooks measure berries by the spoon.

A pound of butter holds exactly 32 tablespoons. Sticks make this easy, since each quarter-pound stick is marked with 8 tablespoons.

If your pound comes as one unmarked block, cut it in half, then cut each half in half again. That gives 4 quarter-pound pieces, and slicing each piece into 8 equal parts gives tablespoons of about 14.2 g each.