How to Convert a Tablespoon to a Cup

Measuring cups are often marked in American and metric units.

If you want to successfully prepare various types of recipes, you must be able to measure correctly. Some of the measurements that are commonly used in cooking include the cup, tablespoon, teaspoon, pint and ounce. If you lack a certain type of measuring device, you may have to convert between one unit of measurement to another. For example, if you don't have a measuring cup, you can use tablespoons to determine the number that would equal a cup.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator (optional)

Instructions

1. Write down or enter into a calculator the number of tablespoons of the ingredient indicated by a recipe. For example, you might have a recipe that calls for 8 tablespoons of milk.

2. Write down or enter the number 16, which is the number of tablespoons in one cup.

3. Divide the number of tablespoons in your recipe by 16 to convert from tablespoons to cups. In this example, you would divide 8 by 16 to get 0.5 cups, or half a cup.

4. Multiply by 16 if you are trying to find out how many tablespoons you would need to equal a certain measurement in cups. For example, if a recipe calls for 2 cups of water, you would multiply 2 by 16 to get 32 tablespoons.

References

• Cooks: Weights and Measures Conversion Calculator
• USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory, Vancouver, Washington: Conversion Formulas