Kitchen Measurements

One thing you need to know when you are cooking is how to measure your ingredients.  Most people know their basic measurements (teaspoon, tablespoon, 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup, cup, pint, quart, and gallon), but do you know what each measurement consists of.  For example, if for some reason your Tablespoon is missing, do you know how many teaspoons you need in your recipe?  Or what if you need a pint of something, how many cups do you need?  Well I thought I would share some numbers so you can be able to answer those questions if they ever come up.  Along with sharing these numbers, I will also share any abbreviations for the measurements that you might find in a recipe, in case you don't know what they mean.

The abbreviation tsp. stands for teaspoon.  Did you know that 1/2 teaspoon is equal to a pinch?  Now you do, and if a recipe calls for a pinch of salt (or some other seasoning), just use 1/2 tsp.

The abbreviation Tbsp. stands for tablespoon.  Notice the difference between teaspoon (tsp.) and tablespoon (Tbsp.)?  I always remembered the difference between the two abbreviations by remembering that a teaspoon is smaller than a tablespoon, so the abbreviation for teaspoon is shorter and starts with a lower case "t" while tablespoon's abbreviation is longer and starts with a capital "T".  Speaking of a tablespoon being bigger than a teaspoon, do you know how many teaspoons go into a Tablespoon?  3!  A tablespoon is also equal to 1/16 of a cup or 1/2 ounce.

Now that I mentioned a cup, did you now that if you see c. in a recipe it stands for cup?  One cup is equal to 16 Tablespoons or 8 ounces.  If measuring solids, use Tablespoons if you don't have a measuring cup, but if measuring fluids and you can't see the cup measurements on it, just use ounces.

The abbreviation pt. stands for pint.  Most recipes do not call for pints, but instead they just say how many cups you need.  But do you know how cups are in a pint?  2 cups.  That means there are 32 Tablespoons in a pint and 16 ounces.

If you see the abbreviation qt. that means quart.  A quart is equal to 2 pints, which is equal to 4 cups, which is equal to 32 ounces.

The abbreviation gal. means gallon.  A gallon is made up of 4 quarts.  How many pints is that?  That's right, 8 pints!  Which means there are 16 cups in a gallon.  If you want to make it smaller that means there are 128 ounces.  Some liquids are sold in liters instead of cups, pints, quarts or gallons.  If you find that your recipe calls for a gallon of something but it is sold in liters, just remember that 1 gallon is equal to 3.8 liters.

And kids in elementary school think math is useless?!  They think they will never need it again in their life?!  Well next time you're cooking and your kid needs practice with their math, tell them some of these equivalents and have them calculate how much of an ingredient you need in a different measurement.  It also will help you out when halving a recipe or doubling or tripling it.