How to Measure 2/3 Cup with a 1/4 Measuring Cup

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Caught in the kitchen without a ⅔ measuring cup, and all you do have is a ¼ cup? We’ve all been there at some point. Thankfully, you can make ⅔ cup of an ingredient by scooping out two ¼ cups, plus 8 tsp (or 2 tbsp + 2 tsp). We’ll show you how it’s done, and give you a walkthrough of our math so you know how we got there. We’ll also show you other ways to measure out ⅔ cup, so you can get cooking no matter the tools you have (or don’t have)!

Things You Should Know

  • Measure ⅔ cup by measuring out two portions of ¼ cup, plus 8 tsp (or 2 tbsp + 2 tsp).
  • Or, measure ⅔ cup without a measuring cup by finding the ingredient’s weight on a site like Online Conversion , then use a kitchen scale to measure it out.
Section 1 of 3:

Making ⅔ Cup with ¼ Cup

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  1. If you’re in the kitchen and don’t have a ⅔ cup measuring tool, measure out 2 portions of ¼ cup of your ingredients plus another 8  tsp (1.3  fl oz) to get ⅔ cup of your ingredient… More or less. The reality is that you just can’t use a ¼-cup measuring tool alone to make exactly ⅔ cup; it’s nowhere near precise enough. But with some math, we can find out another way…
    • If your recipe doesn’t need to be super precise, you might just fill your ¼ cup measuring tool ⅔ of the way full, instead of using teaspoons.
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Section 2 of 3:

Doing the Math

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  1. In order to find out how many ¼ cup goes into ⅔ cup, first find a common denominator for both fractions, or a denominator (the bottom number) that’ll make both fractions the same. [1] To do this, multiply either fraction by the other’s denominator—(⅔ x 4) and (¼ x 3) to get the fractions 8/12 and 3/12 , respectively. Now we have two fractions that have the same denominators. We’re on our way!
  2. Now we find how many times ¼ cup goes into ⅔ cup without having any ingredients spill over. To do that, we divide 8/12 by 3/12 (which is the same as multiplying it by the reciprocal of 3/12, or 12/3). [2] That gives us the equation (8/12 x 12/3), which equals 96/36. When simplified, that’s 2 ⅔ . So ¼ cup goes into ⅔ cup two full times, with ⅔ of ¼ cup left over.
    • We can also do this in decimals by dividing 0.666 by 0.25, which is 2.664, meaning that 0.25 cups goes into 0.666 cups 2.664 times.
  3. We now know that ⅔ cup equals 2 ⅔ portions of a ¼-cup measuring tool. It’s easy enough to scoop out ¼ cup of an ingredient twice, but how do you scoop out ⅔ of ¼ cup? You could eyeball it, or you could do another quick equation to find a smaller unit of measurement. For example, one cup is equal to 237 ml. 1 tsp is 5 ml. [3] That means there are about 47 tsp in a cup. ¼ of a cup is then about 12 tsp. ⅔ of 12 tsp is 8 tsp. Voila! We’ve determined that 2 portions of ¼ cup plus another 8 tsp is about equal to ⅔ cup.
    • Of course, we rounded here and there in our equation for the sake of kitchen practicality, so this isn’t an exact answer. The exact numerical answer would be as it’s written above: 2 ⅔ portions of ¼-cup measurements equals ⅔ cup.
    • As a decimal, ⅔ of ¼ cup is 0.1666 cups.
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Section 3 of 3:

Other Ways to Find ⅔ Cup

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  1. If you have a ½ cup measuring tool and a tablespoon, your job just got even easier. Measure out ½ cup of your ingredient, then 2 tbsp, then 2 tsp, which is equal to ⅔ cup. We’ll spare you the bulk of the math, but it’s a similar equation as the above: ¼ cup + ¼ cup = ½ cup, and there are 3 tsp in every tbsp, which makes for an added 2 tbsp + 2 tsp. [4]
    • You might also simply use two ⅓ cup measurements to equal ⅔ cup.
  2. To measure ⅔ cup another way , use weight, instead. Of course, every ingredient has a different weight, so use an online resource like Online Conversion to find the weight of your ingredient. This tool allows you to convert volumetric measurements (like cups, teaspoons, liters, etc) into weight measurements (like ounces or grams) and vice versa. [5] Once you find your target weight, use a kitchen scale to find the exact amount required by your recipe.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/common-denominator.html
      2. ↑ https://www.themathdoctors.org/dividing-fractions-how-and-why/
      3. ↑ https://www.exploratorium.edu/food/measurements
      4. ↑ https://www.exploratorium.edu/food/measurements
      5. ↑ https://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_volume_cooking.htm

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