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How Many Tablespoons Is In A Stick Of Butter?

Maria Foster
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by Maria Foster

Back in 2020, the amount of butter consumption in the US alone was a massive 2.1 billion pounds, and this makes sense with how commonly it is used in different recipes and dishes.

How Many Tablespoons Is In A Stick Of Butter?

Butter is a staple with how common it is to keep in almost every household, and it is something you will always want on hand, and miss when you are out of it.

Also, if you bake frequently, then butter is something which is very difficult to substitute, it is used commonly, and it gives you a unique flavor and texture which most recipes need to succeed.

However, when working with butter, something which can oftentimes cause issues is how to measure it. Your recipe might ask for your butter to be measured in tablespoons, or perhaps it is using cups.

You might even have a recipe which is using grams, and a lot of more simplified recipes will just use sticks of butter as a unit of measurement. So, this has probably got you wondering how to convert your standard stick of butter into different measurements.

If you work with butter in your recipes, whether this is baking or just cooking, knowing this information is important to getting efficient results from your recipes!

So, if you want to know how to properly make conversions with butter, then keep reading to get all the information on measuring butter you will ever need!

How Butter Is Sold In The US?

Now, if you live in the US, or have lived in the US before, then measuring butter can often be pretty simple. However, because of this simplicity, getting used to different measurement systems with your butter can be tricky.

In the US butter is nearly always sold in a quarter pound stick size. These sticks will be 4 ounces, which is a quarter of a pound.

You will often find that you can buy a pack of butter which weighs a pound, this will be 16 ounces, and it will contain 4 sticks of butter weighing 4 ounces each.

It is worth noting that there are not any weight differences between butter which is salted or unsalted since the salt does not have enough weight to impact this.

However, if you are not converting your butter sticks into pounds and ounces, but instead something like tablespoons, then this is when it gets a little bit more tricky. For every stick of butter you have, this will contain 8 tablespoons of butter.

So, if you cut a stick of butter into 8 completely equal pieces, then these will be a tablespoon each. If you are measuring butter by volume, then you will usually find this being done in tablespoons which are often shortened to tbsp, but sometimes even just T.

The only other time butter is measured in volume when it will not be a tablespoon is when you are working with melted butter or some other form of liquid butter.

Sticks of butter will sometimes even have markings included which will split the butter up into 8ths and you can use these to easily split your butter into tablespoon sizes. But, this can all change if you are not living inside the US or if you are buying butter which is imported.

An example of this is if you are using European butter. These brands of butter will usually arrive in a 1 pound block and these will not include any labels to show measurements.

This is the case for most types of imported butter, and these can sometimes come in half pound blocks as well.

If you have a 1 pound block of butter, then cut this into quarters equally, then these will be 4 sticks of butter, and once you have a stick, you can cut it into 8 to get a tablespoon of butter. 

You can do the same for if you have a half pound block of butter, only cutting it into 2 sticks instead of 4.

This means that a half pound pack of butter is essentially 16 tablespoons of butter, and a full pound pack is 32 tablespoons. If you are confused, we will explain some more specific conversions in the next section.

How Many Tablespoons In A Stick?

In this section we will go through each common stick size of butter and show you how many tablespoons, as well as teaspoons are in each stick size, this will make conversions much easier.

It is worth noting that a teaspoon is a third of the size of a tablespoon, so for every three teaspoons of butter there is one tablespoon. Teaspoon is sometimes shortened to tsp when referring to measurements in recipes.

So, for 4 sticks of butter, there are 32 tablespoons of butter and 96 teaspoons. Then for 2 and a half sticks of butter there are 20 tablespoons of butter and 60 teaspoons. Then when there are 2 sticks of butter this is 16 tablespoons and 48 teaspoons of butter.

When you have 1 and a half sticks of butter this is 12 tablespoons of butter and 36 teaspoons. Then when you have 1 and a quarter sticks of butter this is 10 tablespoons and 30 teaspoons. If you have just 1 stick of butter this is 8 tablespoons and 24 teaspoons.

When you have 2 thirds of a stick of butter this is 5 and a third tablespoon of butter and 16 teaspoons. Then if you have a half stick of butter this is 4 tablespoons of butter and 12 teaspoons. If you have a quarter stick of butter this is 2 tablespoons of butter and 6 teaspoons.

Finally, an eighth of a stick of butter is 1 tablespoon and this is 3 teaspoons. So, as you can see one stick of butter has 8 tablespoons of butter and a half stick has 4 tablespoons of butter.

If you are looking to see how many sticks of butter is 10 tablespoons, then that is a stick and a quarter of butter.

If you are struggling to find a more specific tablespoon of butter measurement like 6 tablespoons which does not have an easy conversion, we recommend getting 12 tablespoons which is a stick and a half of butter, then halving this amount.

If you just want a simple conversion for finding out how many tablespoons of butter you can get from a stick, just multiply the number of sticks by 8, and if you want teaspoons instead, then just multiply this by 24 instead.

Like if you have a 3 and a half stick of butter, all you need to do is multiply 3.5 by 8 and then you will have your answer being 28 tablespoons.

How Many Butter Sticks In A Cup?

How Many Tablespoons Is In A Stick Of Butter?

In most parts of the US, you will find that most sticks of butter are in a quarter pound weighed square.

Then, 8 tablespoons or half a cup will make up one of these sticks, so for every stick of butter, you have half a cup, so you only need 2 sticks of butter to get a whole cup, which is not too hard to remember.

This also makes conversions pretty easy, so for every cup of butter you need for a recipe, you will need 2 sticks of butter. So, if your recipe asks for 1 and a half cups of butter, you will need 3 sticks of butter.

You can also find that a lot of foreign brands of butter will only be sold in a half pound size instead of quarter pound sticks like in the US.

However, these actually make conversions a little more simple since one of these half pound packages of butter will end up being close to a whole cup.

How To Measure A Cup Of Butter?

Luckily it is not too tricky to measure a cup of butter when you have butter that is fresh from the store. This will usually come with wax paper that has markings for how much a tablespoon is.

As we covered in the previous section, one quarter pound stick of butter is equal to half a cup, so the easiest way to measure a cup of butter is to simply have two of them and that is one cup of butter.

If you have 1 cup of butter, this is half a cup, then if you have half a stick this is a quarter of a cup of butter. 1 and a half cups of butter is 3 quarters of a cup, and 2 sticks is 1 cup.

2 and a half sticks is 1 and a quarter cups of butter, and 3 sticks is 1 and a half cups. Then 3 and a half sticks is 1 and 3 quarter cups, and then 4 sticks is 2 cups of butter.

How You Can Measure Butter Sticks By Their Weight?

A lot of recipes, especially those that are not from people based in the US will measure butter by weight instead of by volume.

We have been covering how a stick of butter is a quarter pound, but there are other weight measurements that you can find being used in recipes as well. This could be ounces, pounds, or grams.

The easiest way to measure by weight is to invest a little in some kitchen scales. These are incredibly useful if you cook or bake a lot, and will save you a lot of time and guesswork.

However, if you do not have access to a kitchen scale, then you can use the stick system to estimate a close weight to what you are looking for with butter.

As mentioned, a stick of butter is a quarter pound, 4 ounces, and about 113 grams, so using this we can see how much butter weighs using sticks as a reference point. So, if you have 4 sticks of butter, this is going to weigh 16 ounces, or 454 grams of butter.

Half a stick of butter is an eighth of a pound, 57 grams and 2 ounces. A stick of butter is a quarter pound, 113 grams, and 4 ounces. A stick and a half of butter is ⅜ of a pound, 170 grams, and 6 ounces.

Then 2 sticks of butter is half a pound, 227 grams, and 8 ounces. Then 2 and a half sticks of butter is ⅝ of a pound, 284 grams and 10 ounces. 3 sticks of butter is ¾ of a pound and 341 grams, this is 12 ounces.

Then 3 and a half sticks of butter is ⅞ of a pound which is 398 grams and 14 ounces. Finally, 4 sticks of butter is a pound, which is 454 grams and 16 ounces!

Summary

Hopefully this guide has given you all the information you need when it comes to measuring butter using the stick system!

About Maria Foster
Maria Foster
Maria Foster is a mother of 3 and she and her husband of 23 years share their home with 2 faithful dogs. Besides being CEO of the household and active in her community, Maria is the lead contributor to Food Champs and loves to try new food ideas and kitchen accessories to make easier and more delicious meals.
Maria Foster
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