16 Tablespoons to Teaspoons
16 tbsp = 48 tsp
= 236.6 ml | 8 fl oz | 1.0000 cups
Australia: 16 tbsp = 64 tsp (20 ml tablespoon)
Sixteen tablespoons equals 48 teaspoons, exactly 1 US cup (236.6 ml), or 8 fluid ounces. This is the most important kitchen-conversion landmark: 16 tbsp = 1 cup. Memorising it (and its quarter and half divisions: 4 tbsp = 1/4 cup, 8 tbsp = 1/2 cup, 12 tbsp = 3/4 cup) covers almost all US baking-recipe volume math. Sixteen tablespoons is the butter for many full-batch cookie recipes (1 cup = 2 sticks US butter), the flour for a single small cake layer, or the oil for a large-batch dressing. In Australia, 16 of a 20 ml tablespoon is 320 ml (= 64 metric teaspoons), substantially more than a metric cup (250 ml).
48
Adjacent Tablespoon Values
Common Questions
How many teaspoons in 16 tablespoons?
Sixteen tablespoons equals 48 teaspoons. The math: 16 x 3 = 48 tsp.
Is 16 tablespoons 1 cup?
Yes, exactly. 16 US tablespoons = 1 US cup = 236.59 ml = 8 fluid ounces = 2 sticks of US butter. This is the most important kitchen-conversion landmark to memorise.
What is 16 tablespoons in ml?
Sixteen US tablespoons is 236.6 ml using the NIST 14.79 ml/tbsp figure. Sixteen UK tablespoons is exactly 240 ml. Sixteen Australian tablespoons (20 ml AS 1291) is 320 ml, considerably more than a 250 ml metric cup.
Why do recipes use tablespoons instead of cups for 1 cup?
When a recipe calls for 16 tablespoons it is usually because the ingredient is being added in stages, or because the recipe is scaled from a per-tablespoon ratio (such as 1 tablespoon flour per teaspoon of fat for a roux). For most recipes 1 cup is the standard call; 16 tablespoons appears in technical or scaled contexts.