Soup Spoons

[lindag]

Who decided that the world no longer needed a soup spoon?

I'm old enough to remember when flatware sets included them.

Much nicer for eating soup than the more common tablespoon.

There are some stubborn folk like me available on Amazon.

[Ddanno]

25 minutes ago, lindag said:

 

There are some stubborn folk like me available on Amazon.

 

I'll buy you.

 

Frippery aside, I agree. Dessertspoons are rubbish for soup, you need that mini-bowl shape to get a good slurp.

[Shel_B]

On 8/12/2025 at 6:31 AM, lindag said:

Who decided that the world no longer needed a soup spoon?

[...]

Much nicer for eating soup than the more common tablespoon.

What is the difference between a soup spoon and a tablespoon? What's a tablespoon used for, or intended to be used for?

[Ddanno]

Soup spoons are rounder and  deeper, so both hold more soup and are better for sipping from (imo)

[Maison Rustique]

16 hours ago, Shel_B said:

What is the difference between a soup spoon and a tablespoon? What's a tablespoon used for, or intended to be used for?

In the US, it seems that most cutlery sets sell only tablespoons and not the true soup spoons, so most of us grow up not knowing the difference and considering them interchangeable.

[TdeV]

We used to call them soup spoons and dessert spoons.

 

(to differentiate)

 

 

 

Edited August 14 by TdeV (log)

[OlyveOyl]

The round deeper bowl spoon is “technically” a bouillon spoon, the more oval shaped tablespoon  one is for other soups.   I don’t think that is currently in vogue😀!

Edited August 14 by OlyveOyl (log)

[jedovaty]

I was influenced to pick up some fancy schmancy spoons (big dipper by umeshiso) for a different hobby, and turns out they are even better for both soup, stews, curries, and most importantly, shoveling cereal into my mouth.  Excellent multi-purpose kitchen tool.

[DesertTinker]

29 minutes ago, jedovaty said:

I was influenced to pick up some fancy schmancy spoons (big dipper by umeshiso) for a different hobby, and turns out they are even better for both soup, stews, curries, and most importantly, shoveling cereal into my mouth.  Excellent multi-purpose kitchen tool.

Interesting, looked them up, but other than the length they don’t give any dimensions. How wide is the bowl of the spoon?

[Ddanno]

I want to know more about the different hobby involving spoons that let you cram maximum cereal into one's gob

[jedovaty]

I measured the width and depth of the big dipper's bowl for @TdeV using my trusty calipers purchased for another hobby years gone past, since precision is important.  Sadly, I'm not very good at measuring fiddly things (weird shakes combined with terrible astigmatism) so these are approximately close enough amounts:

The bowl is nearly circular, with diameter of approximately:

 US: 1.84 goldfish crackers

 UK: 0.0038 london double decker busses

 French: 0.071 baguettes

 Rest of the world: ~46mm

Depth is ~14mm.

 

If you'd like a picture of it containing certain foods familiar to you, in order to give you a better idea of size, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

 

Free of charge, I've performed the most important test no one has yet requested: put knuckles up against the back of the spoon.  It fails at giving me a great bum, however, it does give me a glimpse of what it would be like to have an amazing pair of prehensile knockers.

 

As to what hobby: coffee; the spoons make cupping fancy pantsy coffees more fun!  The following video illustrates what I went through when deciding to purchase a set, and is far more accurate than I'd care to admit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlYMZUKoaX8