How big are your tablespoons?
This is kind of random, but I was watching a cooking video where the presenter said things like "we add two tablespoons of olive oil", and it looks like they pour much more than that.
And that has been my feeling all along. "Sprinkle a tablespoon of kosher salt on a chicken"? That seems very little.
Then I googled "1 tablespoon to ml" and found that about 15ml is the definition of tablespoon.
I just measured mine. They hold 10ml, and I consider them regular size.
Are American tablespoons larger? Or is the measure "tablespoon" independent from actual utensils, and whenever you read "two tablespoons" in a recipe, you know to pour three actual tablespoons?
Americans often have set of measuring spoons (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=measuring+spoons) that have 1 Tablespoon, 1 Teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon (some have 1/8 teaspoon too). As you found, a Tablespoon is an "exact" measurement and most don't use their actual eating utensils for cooking - though I'm sure at one point they were used.
Often I've found with watching cooking shows (and some of my own experience) when hosts say something like "add a ___ of blah" and then proceed to just pour it out of the container without exact measurement the reason they are giving a measurement is to give a rough approximate of how much but the exact amount doesn't really matter, though it never hurts to go towards the smaller for things like seasoning.
In terms of baking recipes (bread, cakes, cookies, etc) the exact amount matters more (chemistry or live things) but you can still be off by a bit and things will still work.
Besides the fact already mentioned that there's 2 completely different sizes of tablespoon, TV/internet chefs generally lie about the quantities and times of everything. How many times have you heard them say things like "cook the onions until they're dark brown - about 15 minutes", or "this step seals the juices inside the steak" or similar nonsense. I don't know why they do it, but they do.
Don't know if it's the same in the US, but in the UK there's also the desert spoon, that you'd eat rice-pudding with; a tablespoon is only for serving or measuring, you couldn't fit one in your mouth (unless you have a really big mouth). Could this be the issue?
I wish it was common practice to do everything by weight! Measuring by volume tends to have a lot of more error due to manufacturing of the measurement device, packing of the material, and density fluctuations
I studied classical French cuisine in Europe and when I came back to the states, I found that everything here is measured by volume vs by weight there. The scale is such an integral part of the kitchen. Because it’s drilled into me, I still measure everything by weight.
Otoh, for Indian cooking that I grew up with, it’s always by ratio. Or at least how I learnt it. Example: 1:3 ..rice:water. I guess it’s based on volume but with non standard cups/tbsp etc. For seasoning, you go ‘by the nose’. And taste...taste...taste.
As an aside/off topic slightly: You cook with your senses. For example, one of the earliest kitchen chores my grandmother taught me was to make ghee from churned butter. It’s a thin line between caramelised and burnt. How can you tell? You ‘listen’. When the butter fats are completely caramelised and there is no more moisture content, the top froths and there is no more sizzling sound. So here..when you are in the steam/multiple mingling smells and you can’t see the bottom of the pot of caramelised butter fats...all you have is your hearing. If it becomes silent, then it means it’s done. You can’t make ghee with a timer or thermometer. Tools don’t make the chef.
I used this technique at work when I was cooking professionally. Caramelised butter can be beurre claire(just melted butter..you don’t want it to smell caramelised), beurre noisette(smells like roasted hazelnut), beurre noir(black..as when used with cooking skate etc). I had a counting system after all sounds have stopped to get to the right point of butter melting.
The last. The measure "tablespoon" is indeed independent from actual utensils, and is measured with a set of tools for that purpose, as you would with ml.
1 US cup is a little less than a quarter liter (actually 236.6 mls)
There are 16 tablespoons in a cup, which gives the ~15 mls you found.
Also note there are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon.
I believe every household in Sweden has at least one set of plastic measuring spoons, like these. You'd think they were issued at birth, or something. https://www.pricerunner.se/pl/461-4127639/Koekstillbehoer/No...
They have a 5ml teaspoon (sv: tesked) and a 15ml tablespoon (sv: matsked). Also typically a 1ml "kryddmått" (literally "spice measure"; no idea what the English equivalent would be), and an obviously-100-ml dl (decilitre). Nobody (well, hardly anyone) uses "normal" spoons.
In the USA, "tablespoon" is an official standard measurement of volume with a defined size. it doesn't actually mean a table spoon you eat with. Yes, the official standard tablespoon is probably bigger than most actual table spoons, if that means a spoon you eat with.
I use wolframalpha and convert everything to millilitres and grams as appropriate.
Most times you don't even need to distinguish between volume and weight because wolframalpha also does that conversion for you.
The unit of measurement varies by region: a United States tablespoon is approximately 14.8 mL (0.50 US fl oz), a United Kingdom and Canadian tablespoon is exactly 15 mL (0.51 US fl oz), and an Australian tablespoon is 20 mL (0.68 US fl oz). The capacity of the utensil (as opposed to the measurement) is defined by neither law nor custom, and it may or may not significantly approximate the measurement.
The measure "tablespoon" is independent from actual utensils, as far as I can tell.
And who came up with the abreviations tbsp and tsp to mean different amounts?
Oh and 'cups', who came up with that?
> This is kind of random, but I was watching a cooking video where the presenter said things like "we add two tablespoons of olive oil", and it looks like they pour much more than that.
I don't know which chef you watched but Gordon Ramsey and olive oil is a meme for a reason. He uses way more than the amounts that he mentions. Most tv/youtube chefs eyeball stuff like oil and seasoning anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Do an image search for "measuring tablespoon". It's a dedicated piece of silverware, distinct from a regular tablespoon.
Alternatively you can just eyeball everything.
I (in the UK) have always understood a tablespoon to mean 10ml, but also that the exact quantity doesn't really matter and I'm ok just to approximate it with an actual tablespoon or according to how I feel.
The Wikipedia page on tablespoons has a lot of (now) unsourced claims about UK tablespoons that make me frown.
I was confused by this too a long time, since i am living in a metric world. Tablespoon and teaspoon are units and you can buy measurement tools for tablespoons, teaspoons and cups.
Weight is far superior as a cooking unit, due to flour compression etc. So if possible use weights :)
> we add two tablespoons of olive oil", and it looks like they pour much more than that
I saw that on cooking shows often, I guess it is cooking by a feel instead of following the exact measurements. For some things it doesn't really matter.
Baking is science, cooking is art. Use metric values when baking and intuition when cooking.
It would be interesting to take all the measures that refer to real objects (tablespoons, feet, stones, etc...) and to compare them to whatever "average" of actual objects we can devise.
I actively will turn away from any recipe that uses units not found in the SI system
How many liters are your hogsheads?