This Is Interesting...

I learnt something interesting today… I’ve always known that there are slight differences between UK measurements and US measurements, where cooking and baking are concerned, but I didn’t realize by how much. I had always assumed that the differences were marginal at best, and would not affect the cooking and baking process. So, I was a little surprised to discover the following…

1 teaspoon (US) = 4.93ml (and 1 tsp is usually taken as 5ml)
1 teaspoon (UK) = 4.62ml

Okay, the difference in teaspoon measurement is negligible and insignificant. But take a look at this…

1 tablespoon (US) = 14.78 ml (and is usually taken at a rounded up 15 ml) = 3 (US) teaspoons

1 tablespoon (UK) = 18.5 ml = 4 (UK) teaspoons = 1.25 (US) tablespoons

Now, this could result in important differences when baking (where exact measurements are usually very important to the end result). If I was using a UK recipe that called for 8 tablespoons of butter for example, but I used a US measuring tablespoon to measure out the 8 tablespoons, I would be shortchanging myself of 2 tablespoons of butter. (8 UK tablespoons is equivalent to 10 US tablespoons). Wow! That’s 20% less butter than is required by the recipe. I’m sure that would have an effect on the final baked product. I hadn’t realized the size of the differences could be so significant.

I will have to remember these conversions the next time I bake or cook from a UK recipe.

Here are some more interesting conversions:

1 fl oz (US) = 29.57 ml = 2 (US) tbsps
1 fl oz (UK) = 28.41 ml

1 cup (US) = 236.52 ml (usually taken at the rounded 240ml) = 16 (US) tbsps = 8 fl oz (US) = 8.32 fl oz (UK)
1 cup (UK) = 250 ml

1 pint (US) = 473 ml
1 pint (UK) = 568 ml

So, 1 US quart is 2 US pints but only 1.66 UK pints.

And for those of us living outside the US… we often see US recipes calling for ½ stick of butter or 1 stick of butter and so on. The US stick of butter is actually very different from the sticks of butter we get here (in Asia).

1 US stick of butter is equivalent to 8 (US) tablespoons or approximately 120g or 4 oz. And 1 tablespoon of butter is equivalent to 14.18g or 0.5oz.

The sticks of butter sold in Asian supermarkets are usually 250g or approximately 17 tablespoons of butter. And so a US recipe calling for ½ stick of butter is really just under a quarter of a stick for us!

Ah! The differences that make our world so interesting!

Copyright © 2003 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
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