---
title: "Tsk: what it means in cooking — Tiny Plates"
description: "Tsk, short for tesked, is the Swedish teaspoon and holds exactly 5 ml. It equals 5 krm or a third of a msk, and swaps one for one with a US teaspoon."
url: "https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/tsk"
---

# Tsk

Tsk, short for tesked, is the Swedish teaspoon and holds exactly 5 ml. It equals 5 krm or a third of a msk, and swaps one for one with a US teaspoon.

Also called Tesked, Teskedar, Swedish teaspoon.

Tsk is short for _tesked_, which means teaspoon in Swedish. In a Swedish measuring set it holds exactly 5 ml. Swedish recipes use it for baking powder, salt, spices, vanilla sugar and yeast. The plural is _teskedar_, but recipes write tsk for both. Other Nordic recipes use similar short forms, such as ts in Norwegian and tsk in Danish.

## How to do it

1. Fill the tsk measure with the ingredient.
2. Sweep it [level](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/level) with a knife unless the recipe says _rågad_(heaping).
3. For a half, level the spoon first, then push half out with the knife.

## How to use it

The Swedish volume units are exact metric amounts:

| Swedish unit                                                      | Exact value | Same as |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | ------- |
| 1 [krm](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/krm) (kryddmått)      | 1 ml        | ⅕ tsk   |
| 1 tsk (tesked)                                                    | 5 ml        | 5 krm   |
| 1 [msk](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/msk) (matsked)        | 15 ml       | 3 tsk   |
| 1 [dl](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/deciliter) (deciliter) | 100 ml      | 20 tsk  |

A US [teaspoon](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/teaspoon) is 4.93 ml and a UK teaspoon is 5 ml, so 1 tsk and 1 teaspoon are the same in any recipe. Use them one for one.

| Tsk   | US measure   |
| ----- | ------------ |
| ½ tsk | ½ teaspoon   |
| 1 tsk | 1 teaspoon   |
| 2 tsk | 2 teaspoons  |
| 3 tsk | 1 tablespoon |

## Common mistakes

* Reading tsk as msk. Msk (tablespoon) is three times bigger, and the two short forms are easy to mix up at a glance.
* Using an everyday Swedish _tesked_ from the cutlery drawer. Like spoons everywhere, they are not made to measure, and can hold more or less than 5 ml.
* Converting baking powder in tsk to grams with a guess. 1 tsk baking powder weighs about 4 g. If you need to weigh it, use that.

## In recipes

You will see "2 tsk bakpulver" (2 teaspoons baking powder), "1 tsk salt", "1 tsk vaniljsocker" (vanilla sugar) and "½ tsk kardemumma" (cardamom). Smaller amounts are given in krm, larger ones in msk.

## Related terms

* [KrmKrm, short for kryddmått, is the Swedish spice measure and holds exactly 1 ml. Here is how it compares to tsk, msk and US teaspoons.](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/krm)
* [MskMsk, short for matsked, is the Swedish tablespoon and holds exactly 15 ml. It equals 3 tsk and is close enough to a US tablespoon to swap directly.](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/msk)
* [DeciliterA deciliter (dl) is exactly 100 ml, the main volume unit in Swedish and Nordic recipes. See how it compares to cups and what 1 dl weighs.](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/deciliter)
* [TeaspoonA teaspoon holds 5 ml, and 3 teaspoons make a tablespoon. Here is how to measure one level, and how it compares to tsk and krm in Swedish recipes.](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/teaspoon)
* [MilliliterA milliliter (ml) is a thousandth of a liter, the metric unit for measuring liquids. See how ml converts to teaspoons, cups and fluid ounces.](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/milliliter)
* [LevelA level measure is filled to the rim and swept flat with a knife. Unless a recipe says heaping or packed, every spoon and cup should be level.](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/level)

[More in measurements](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary/category/measurements)[Every term from A to Z](https://www.tinyplates.dev/glossary)