Are Teaspoons And Tablespoons The Same Around The World?

When it comes to cooking (and especially baking), accurately measuring ingredients is a necessity. For the utmost accuracy, using a kitchen scale is the best option. But ingredients in small quantities (such as extracts, oils, spices, and powders) won't trigger a weight response from a kitchen scale. This is where your measuring spoons come in handy. Tablespoons and teaspoons are used around the world, regardless of what measurement system the country follows. The odd thing here is that the volume for teaspoons and tablespoons does differ depending on what part of the world you're in.

If this has left you scratching your head, don't worry you're not alone! In the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar the imperial system is used, which expresses decimal measurements as fractions. The rest of the world uses the metric system. All this is to say, a tablespoon in the U.S. is going to hold less volume than a tablespoon in the U.K., for example. Now, if you're still scratching your head, again you're not alone — it's more complicated than it really should be.

So, if you're using measuring spoons made in the U.S., the imperial system was used which means 1 teaspoon will hold 4.93 milliliters. If your measuring spoons were made somewhere where the metric system is used, then 1 teaspoon will hold an even 5 milliliters. As you can see here, the difference in volume is really not that significant at all so you shouldn't have any concerns about a recipe being drastically altered. 

However, if you're ready for a curve ball, while Australia also uses the metric system, 1 teaspoon there equals 10 milliliters. If you're measuring out an ingredient like salt (the most important ingredient in your kitchen), a 5 milliliter difference can easily impact the outcome of a recipe for the worse.

With all that being said, the answer is no: teaspoons and tablespoons are not the same around the world. However, because the difference is so trivial, no matter where you are in the world — except maybe Australia — using the local measuring spoons should still produce the same results. That is, of course, if you follow the recipe correctly.