Determine whether the ingredient is dry, wet or a variance ingredient. Wet ingredients include water, milk, butter and most liquids, while dry ingredients include, flour, sugar, salt and most dry, unpacked ingredients. Variances are primarily syrup or thick liquids, or whole dry ingredients such as berries or nuts. For example, honey or sliced almonds have very different weights and don't follow general conversion rules.
Multiply the ounces needed in the recipe by 6 for dry ingredients to determine the amount of teaspoons necessary. Each ounce of a dry ingredient contains 6 teaspoons, the equivalent of 2 tablespoons or ½ cup. A recipe calling for ½ ounce requires only 3 teaspoons of the dry ingredient.
Use the same guideline to determine the amount of teaspoons in a liquid ingredient to convert ounces to teaspoons, but use a wet measuring cup instead of a dry measuring cup for larger amounts. Each ounce equals 6 teaspoons or 2 tablespoons, while every 2 ounces equals ¼ cup in a wet measuring cup.
Convert ingredients that vary from the wet and dry norm only if a scale is not available. For example, 3/8 ounce of honey equals 3 teaspoons. A kitchen weight chart can aid these conversions if a kitchen scale isn't available.