Teaspoon

A teaspoon is a measuring spoon that holds 5 ml. A US teaspoon is 4.93 ml, which is the same for any cooking purpose. Three teaspoons make a tablespoon. Recipes write it tsp or a lowercase t, and Swedish recipes call it tesked, written tsk. It is the size used for salt, spices, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla and yeast.

How to do it

1. Stir the ingredient in its jar to loosen it.
2. Dip the measuring spoon in and lift it out full.
3. Sweep across the top with a straight knife to make it level.
4. Measure over a small dish, not over your mixing bowl.

How to use it

Teaspoons	Other measures
⅛ tsp	about 0.6 ml, a dash
¼ tsp	about 1.2 ml, a little over 1 krm
½ tsp	2.5 ml
1 tsp	5 ml, 1 tsk, 5 krm
3 tsp	1 tablespoon, 15 ml

Rough weights for 1 level teaspoon:

Ingredient	Weight
Fine table salt	about 6 g
Coarse kosher-style salt	about 3 to 5 g
Granulated sugar	about 4 g
Baking powder	about 4 g
Baking soda	about 5 g
Instant yeast	about 3 g

Salt varies most. A teaspoon of coarse salt is far less salty than a teaspoon of fine salt, because the large flakes leave gaps.

Common mistakes

• Using a cutlery teaspoon. They hold anywhere from about 2.5 to 6 ml.
• Mixing up tsp and tbsp. Too much salt or baking soda by three times can ruin a dish.
• Swapping fine salt for coarse salt one to one. If a recipe says kosher salt and you only have fine salt, use about half to three quarters as much, depending on how coarse the kosher salt is.
• Heaping baking powder or soda. The extra makes cakes rise too fast, then sink, and taste bitter.

In recipes

You will see "1 tsp baking soda", "½ teaspoon ground cumin" and "1 t vanilla". "A scant teaspoon" means a little under, and "a heaping teaspoon" a good deal more. Smaller amounts are a pinch or a dash.