Another question for Brit friends

Hi Barbara,

it's a dessert spoon, which I've always taken to be equivalent to about 10 mls or 2 teaspoons. I have looked it up and some websites say 10mls and some

15mls, but I think 10mls is the more usual measurement

Hope this helps

Liz

Barbara, it is probably a desert spoon. I have seen it in other cookbooks, such as Greek. As to the measurement, maybe someone can enlighten us.

Arlene

1 tbsp = 2 dsp = 4 tsp

The old imperial measurements would have been 1 tbs = 1/2 fl oz (14.2ml)

1 dsp = 1/4 fl oz (7.1ml) and 1 tsp = 1/8 fl oz (3.6ml).

Modern UK cook books use 1 tbs = 15 ml, 1 dsp = 10 ml and 1 tsp = 5 ml.

Australian cookbooks will use 1 tsp = 5 ml and 1 tbs = 20 ml which maintains the ratio of 1 tbs : 4 tsp.

"Ray Almond" wrote>

1 tbsp = 2 dsp = 4 tsp

In the U.S., 1 tablespoon=3 teaspoons

Yes, British fluid ounces are slightly different from U.S. ones, and it doesn't usually make much of a difference in pints but it sure does in cooking.

That's interesting: in the US, 1 Tbsp = 3 tsp.

Thanks everyone for the enlightenment! I don't know what to do about it, as I've just learned that all my spoon measurements are wrong. However, most of these measurements are used for things like spices and seasonings, so a little difference wouldn't matter much. For things such as baking soda, I tend to use my judgement anyway.

... except that Britsh pints are 20 fl oz ("A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter") and US pints are 16 fl oz ("A pint's a pound the world around" for a given definition of "the world"*)

Yes, I meant that for large amounts of fluid, the slight difference doesn't matter (and the more beer, the better! ;) I always thought it was pretty presumptuous of Americans to call ourselves "the world" but that's U.S. for you... ;)

(Sally, I used to live in Harrogate)

Hey, it isn't our fault you went and changed your measurement systems (twice!) after we made our proverbs. We're just conservative. :-)

=Tamar

Curiousity killed the cat....

DH has just looked it up [1] and 1 US fluid ounce is 1.805 cubic inch (29.58 cubic centimetres) and 1 GB fluid ounce is 1.732 cubic inch (28.38 cubic centimetres).

So a GB fluid ounce is smaller than the US fluid ounce and the GB pint is

1.12 US pints.

But of course a further confusion is that 1 US gallon (dry) = 1.164 US gallon (liquid) whereas the GB gallon is the same for both dry and liquid.

So the above comparisons only hold for liquid measures!

[1] Miner, D.F. and Seastone, J.B. (eds); 1955; "Handbook of Engineering Materials"; New York: John Wiley & Sons

So why dont you all go metric, where life is soooo much easier. Really!

Roger.

Ray Alm> In article