Perhaps one of the most reliable ways to measure any kind of ingredient is with a measuring spoon or cup. However, what if you don’t own or lost the measuring spoon that you need? How are you supposed to measure the proper amount without the reliability of a measuring spoon?
In this article, we are going to address nine different methods of measuring a 3/4 teaspoon without using an actual 3/4 teaspoon measuring spoon. We will address some common, some not-so-common, and unusual methods you may want to try.
1. Food Scales
To be as precise as possible, you can use a food scale when trying to measure 3/4 teaspoons without an exact measuring spoon. All you need is a simple electronic scale and a bowl or something to put the ingredient you are measuring into.
Food scales allow you to measure the weight of the food product properly and accurately and to distribute the weight accordingly. There’s no doubt that digital food scales are proven to be the most accurate way to measure food-related items.
When wanting to measure a 3/4 teaspoon, the digital food scale will excel. You might think that 3/4 teaspoon of an ingredient will be too light for the food scale to measure, but most scales are quite sensitive and will be able to accurately measure it. That’s the miracle of high-quality food scales. Even lower-quality food scales could possibly fulfill this duty.
When using a food scale to measure a 3/4 teaspoon, you will need to do a bit of math. For example, if a food scale measures in millimeters, convert 1 teaspoon into millimeters and see what the conversion is. Then figure out how much 3/4 teaspoon is in millimeters and measure the ingredients you need in that amount with your food scale.
If your food scale measures in grams, all you will need to do is put a small bowl on the scale, zero the scale out so that it is not considering the weight of the bowl in the total, and measure out 3.7 grams. For instance, if you are measuring salt, you should use a spoon or your hand and put a little bit of salt in the bowl at a time until the scale reads 3.7 grams. That amount of grams is equivalent to 3/4 teaspoon.
2. Eyeballing
Another common method of measuring a 3/4 teaspoon is eyeballing it. Eyeballing is a common term for estimating and guessing to the best of your abilities the measurement of the substance you are trying to measure.
For instance, if you are measuring salt, you can pour a little bit in the palm of your hand and estimate how much 3/4 teaspoon is. If you know your way around a kitchen and you are cooking or baking often, you may feel very comfortable estimating and measuring the amount in your hand before throwing it in the bowl.
This method is not the most accurate, but you can do many things to fix the amount you put in the recipe if you do it wrong. If you are measuring a seasoning, put a little bit in at a time and then taste your mixture and add more as you want. You can also ways top something off with the seasoning at the end if you find that you under-measured. However, you can’t easily take an ingredient out once you’ve mixed it in.
With a measurement as small as a 3/4 teaspoon, you can go a little under or a little over and not have it impact your recipe negatively. However, this method is only going to be preferred if you are comfortable with eyeballing the measurements.
3. Use Your Current Tbsp and Tsp Set
You likely have a set of measuring spoons and cups, so by using those, we can determine how to measure a 3/4 teaspoon without a 3/4 measuring spoon. There are a few ways to do this, and each will get you either exact or quite close to hitting the 3/4 teaspoon measurement. In your measuring spoon set, you should have a 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon, and the easiest way to measure 3/4 teaspoons is to use the 1/4 teaspoon 3 times.
If you don’t have that measuring spoon, you can use the 1/2 teaspoon. All you will do is fill the 1/2 teaspoon up all the way, dump that into the bowl, use the 1/2 teaspoon and fill it up halfway, then dump it into the bowl.
You can also use the 1 teaspoon measuring spoon, fill it up all the way, and pour a small amount out until it looks to be filled 3/4ths of the way up. That will get you quite close to the 3/4 teaspoon measurement that you are trying to hit.
Any of these options under this section will be your best bet for measuring a 3/4 teaspoon. It will involve the least amount of hassle, and it is quite easy to do if you already have these tools available.
4. Use A Soda Bottle Cap
One way that you might not have considered measuring ingredients is by using a bottle cap. If you use a cap from a 20oz bottle of Coke, it measures out to 1 teaspoon. Fill the cap most, but not all, of the way to the top, and you will have 3/4 of a teaspoon.
This can be done with other soda bottle caps as well, which means that you finally have something to do with the dozens of bottle caps in your recycling bin. Plus, you likely have a soda bottle in the house, and if you don’t you can easily go to the store and get one.
5. Measure Using the Dash or Pinch Methods
These are methods for estimating a small amount of seasonings when cooking, and they can work when you are trying to guess how to measure 3/4 teaspoon. You do this by knowing what a dash, pinch, smidgen, and nip are.
A dash is 1/8th of a teaspoon, a pinch is 1/16th of a teaspoon, a smidgen is 1/32th of a teaspoon, and a nip is 1/64th of a teaspoon. For now, we will focus on the dash and pinch.
A pinch is measured by using your index finger and your thumb and picking up the amount of something like salt that fits in that space. A dash can be 2 pinches or it can be a bit of a larger pinch where you use your index finger, middle finger, and thumb to come together in a pinch and grab the amount of salt.
Basically, you will measure about 6 dashes to measure out a 3/4 teaspoon, which means you should put about 6 large pinches in the bowl you are using. If you are worried about that approximation, you can do 12 small pinches with just your index finger and thumb instead.
6. Reference Your Index Finger or a Ruler
If you look at your index finger, you will see the top joint, which should be about an inch long. This can help you to measure out a 3/4 teaspoon. Using your finger as a reference, you can measure enough substance to in a sense “fill up” 3/4 of your index finger’s top joint.
The size of 1 teaspoon relative to the index finger is also about 1 inch. Using a ruler in place of your finger may be a better method for the proper division of the supposed teaspoon.
A teaspoon size is roughly equivalent to the top joint of the index finger. Using this and roughly dividing it into 4 sections can help you get an idea of what a 3/4 teaspoon should look like. Again, much like eyeballing, this method is somewhat inaccurate but useful in a pinch.
You can also be more precise by putting a ruler on top of a piece of paper and making a small pile that fills the ruler up to 3/4 of an inch. The small pile is going to be about the same as 3/4 of a teaspoon.
7. References via a Dime
If you know what the size of a dime looks like from memory, you can use that idea to help you measure. Put a dime-sized amount of whatever you are measuring in your hand, then just dump that into what you are making. This will be equivalent to 1/4 teaspoon, so do that two more times.
This method works because a mound of salt the size of a dime is about 1/4 teaspoon. While it is about as accurate as the eyeballing method, it is more accurate than using an index finger or ruler.
If you use the size of another coin to measure out ingredients, the measurement won’t be accurate.
If you don’t know how big a dime is by memory and don’t want to put things on a dime, trace a dime on a piece of paper and fill the circle 3 times with the ingredient you are measuring.
8. Using Kitchen Spoons and Silverware
Something you may not think about is using your common utensils to measure 3/4 teaspoons when you don’t have the needed measuring spoons available. What many people don’t know is that an average size of a spoon used for eating cereal, for example, is approximately 1 tablespoon, while a smaller spoon for stirring coffee is about 1 teaspoon. So, if you use a smaller spoon and underfill it a tad, you can roughly measure out 3/4 teaspoon.
If you have baby spoons, you can use them as well. A baby spoon can hold about the 1 teaspoon, so if you happen to have any of those lying around your utensil drawer, go ahead and pull it out. If you wanted to measure 3/4 teaspoon of salt, you can use the baby spoon and underfill it slightly to get an estimated 3/4 teaspoon. It will work quite well, and it can be handy if you don’t have a stirring spoon for tea or coffee at home.
9. Measure Using the Smidgen or Nip Methods, or Measuring To Taste
If you are at this point of the list and are still having trouble finding a way to measure out 3/4 of a teaspoon, you might want to try this out. Remember earlier how we talked about using a dash or a pinch to measure out your ingredients? Well, you can use a similar strategy to measure out your 3/4 of a teaspoon by using the smidgen or nip methods.
A smidgen is considered to be half a pinch of an ingredient. Remember that a pinch is the amount of an ingredient that can be held between your thumb and index finger. If you want to measure about half this amount, try measuring by using the area of your finger directly below the fingernails. This will allow you to limit the amount of an ingredient that you will pick up and ensure that you are getting a smidgen worth of said ingredient each time. It will take 24 smidgens to measure out a 3/4 teaspoon.
If you want to be even more technical, you can try measuring 3/4 teaspoon with nips. Nips, or drops as they are sometimes known as if you are using a liquid ingredient, are an even smaller unit of measurement than smidgens.
You can measure a nip by measuring half a smidgen with dry ingredients, or a large drop of a liquid ingredient. You will need 48 nips to measure out a 3/4 teaspoon. We do not recommend measuring teaspoons with nips.
Final Thoughts
If you are really worried about measuring ingredients accurately, add them slowly to your meal and make sure to taste your cooking often. Once you have reached your desired flavor, there is no need to add more.
Overall, there are many things that you can do to measure out a 3/4 teaspoon if you don’t have the required measuring spoon. Which method you use is ultimately up to you and what is currently in your kitchen.
For more, check out 9 Easy Ways To Measure 3/4 Cup (Without a 3/4 Measuring Cup).
Anne James has a wealth of experience in a wide array of interests and is an expert in quilting, cooking, gardening, camping, mixing drinks (worked as a professional bartender), and making jelly.
Anne has a professional canning business, has been featured in the local newspaper as well as on the Hershey website, and has been her family canner for decades. Anyone growing up in the South knows that there is always a person in the family who has knowledge of the “old ways,” and this is exactly what Anne is.
With over 55 years of experience in these endeavors, she brings a level of hands-on knowledge that is hard to surpass. Amazingly, she doesn’t need to reference many resources due to her vast wealth of experience. She IS the source.
Anne wants nothing more than to pass on her extensive knowledge to the next generations, whether that be family or anyone visiting her website, her YouTube channel, or preservingsweetness.com.