help! I'm baffled and confused. :(

[derien]

I got in this disagreement with CeeJay and ElvenGirl a while back over how many teaspoons to a tablespoon.  eor and I have both had it in our heads from when we were kids that it was 2t=1T, but CeeJay and ElvenGirl both said 3t=1T.  I went home that day and poured two teaspoons into my tablespoon measure and it was about full, so I wrote them off as nuts, but just now I looked up a recipe for Long Island Iced Tea and it uses '2t' throughout the recipe rather than '1T,' as I would think would be more time efficient.  So I looked up the conversion online, and each place we've checked so far bears out CeeJay and ElvenGirl's assertion. 

So.  Here's what I place before you.  Have all the online places drawn from the same incorrect source and redefined the Tablespoon as 3t?  daegaer and cyberquail, I particularly appeal to you, as being the same age as myself and eor - what do you remember from when you were young?  Why should it be that both of us, raised quite separately, would remember it the one way when the rest of the world seems to have it the other way?

Meanwhile, as I was writing this, I just had the worst damned neck twinge.  Ow.

ETA: Since all the online sources disagree with our memory, I won't be offended if you say "You guys are just psycho."

In addition, I would like to mention that my experiment with trying to use Pine Bud Drink as a substitute for gin, is, in fact, a failure.  I'll probably repeat this failure for the rest of the night, as it's a failure I can sort of live with, but it's not something I'll make a habit of.  It might have worked better if I'd actually had any triple sec, which is required for a proper Long Island Iced Tea, but I can't go buy it now as a few sips of this in the process of making it has me probably unfit to drive.

yet another edit to add:  We just measured it again, and our measuring spoons still agree with us - two teaspoons are all that fit into the Tablespoon measure.  Any more and it pours out over the sides. 

ETA The Third: Okay, consider the evidence in. lemondropgirl referenced Google, mec407 weighed in with his Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks from the 50s and 60s, and camwyn has added the testimonial of her textbook from Food Prep and Hospitality Management 101 and 102.

And the conclusion is - derien and eor are complete dorks. As everyone always expected, right? :)

ETA the Fourth: The only explanaition I can find for the fact that our Tablespoon measure appeared to agree with our belief is that our psychic (or possibly psychotic) fields actually changed the size of the measuring spoon to match our belief. ;)

ETA the Fifth (2013!) The last measuring spoon set we bought actually had 2 different "Tablespoons" in it: One is 15 milliliters, the other is 20 milliliters.

and a Sixth ETA Eor says he and I have discussed the fact that the 20mil Tablespoon is Australian. I didn't remember that.

Comments

[mollyrazor.livejournal.com]

I have never contemplated the number of teaspoons in a tablespoon before. I just went to Google and typed "how many teaspoons in a tablespoon" (without quotes) in the search box, and it came back with 1 US tablespoon = 3 US teaspoons.

I tend to trust Google's calculator thingamajig. :)

[mec407.livejournal.com]

My Betty Crocker cookbook and my Better Homes & Garden cookbook, from the 1950s and 1940s, respectively, both define a tablespoon as equal to three teaspoons.

My stainless steel measuring spoons from Williams-Sonoma agree. : )

[camwyn]

My cooking textbook, from Food Prep and Hospitality Management 101 and 102, says 3t = 1T.

[peak-in-darien.livejournal.com]

GIP

[licking-suntan.livejournal.com]

You guys may not be as crazy as you think! I performed some experiments and found that 2 tsp of water filled 1T exactly BUT 3 tsp of sugar didn't quite fill 1T.

And Mike insists that I'm the crazy one for insisting that liquids and dry stuff measure differently.