Wooden Spoons

[Fat Guy]

In the age of the $8 silicone "spoonula," an item I certainly like a lot, I fear the humble unfinished wooden spoon may be forgotten. Unfinished wooden spoons are essentially free -- if you buy one at the dollar store, you're overpaying (in other words, you should be able to get a two- or three-pack for a dollar). You can use them for so many cooking tasks -- everything from scrambling eggs and stirring sauces to tossing salads and scooping rice -- and they're even compatible with delicate non-stick coatings.

May we take a collective moment to salute this incredibly versatile and inexpensive piece of kitchen equipment?

[srhcb]

My favorite stirring and tasting spoon is a very old 9 1/2" (used to be 12") wooden spoon that I use nearly every night.

Many years ago I gave these wooden spatulas to my cooking friends for Christmas and I still get compliments on them.

SB (wood is good)

[Domestic Goddess]

I echo the praise on the wooden spoon. I grew up seeing my mom stir, fry, mix, etc. with her worn down wooden spoon. Hers was rubbed down about an inch shorter than it's original length and had developed a fine sheen on it. I would wait for that special moment when she would turn to me and tell me "Here, taste this". In that moment, a mother-daughter connection is made. I get to taste first-hand whatever food she is cooking and I get to make an important decision - "add more salt? / Not sweet enough? / Just right!".

I vowed that when I grew up and had my own kitchen, I would have my own wooden spoon. Now I do and it's my turn to connect with my sons by having them taste the food and make an important decision. When my sons grow up and get married, they're getting a package of wooden spoons and spatulas from me, for their kitchen.

[Luckylies]

I like the bamboo ones also especially the ones with a flat edge for scraping sucs etc. It's nice to be able to hit the corners. I also like not burning my tongue on a metal spoon. i really can't remember buying my spoons...is it possible they were all passed to me?? except the joyce chen? will investigate...

[zeffer81]

how can one kitchen tool be so very useful for SO MANY things? i adore my wooden spoon and look forward to the day that i can pass mine on to my (yet unborn...and unconceived ) child. hooray for the wooden spoon!

[Marlene]

I have several wooden spoons and a couple of the wooden spatulas that I use a lot. I also have my grandmother's wooden spoon which I use exclusively for gravies and sauces. I have no idea why I only use it for those, I just do.

I don't ever use silicone spoons and plastic ones drive me crazy, although my husband loves them.

[phatj]

My single favorite utensil is a wooden spatula with an angled end and a chiseled (bluntly, of course) edge. Perfect for scraping, great for getting into corners.

It cost 33 1/3 cents (came with two other wooden implements) at a grocery store. Unfortunately, it's getting worn down and I haven't been able to find another.

[maggiethecat]

The day after I was married I bought a couple of olivewood spoons. I was married a long time ago, and I use these spoons almost every day. I also own my Nonna-in-law's wooden spoons -- she bought them for her wedding in 1910. They're aging better than I am.

Somewhere on the Christmas present thread a member tells about woodburning designs on inexpensive wooden spoons. That is just dope! Three for a buck spoons with ink. I was so enchanted with the idea that I just might buy a woodburning kit.

It's not a real kitchen without a couple of wooden spoons. When I visit my parents I see , sitting in the utensil crock, the self-same wooden spoon Mummy took to out bad bottoms when we were kids.

Bring on your pretty silicone spoons, but wooden spoons will never die.

[fiftydollars]

I love these things. I got a fancy-pants silicone spatula that briefly distracted me from wooden spoons, but I soon got tired of the odors that are so much more easily stored and dispensed by the silicone and I switched back to plain wood (and some bamboo).

[KatieLoeb]

I have a great wooden spoon with a notch in the handle that lets you rest it on the edge of the pot or saucepan.

[PamelaF]

I like the bamboo ones also especially the ones with a flat edge for scraping sucs etc. It's nice to be able to hit the corners. I also like not burning my tongue on a metal spoon. i really can't remember buying my spoons...is it possible they were all passed to me?? except the joyce chen? will investigate...

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I second on the bamboo spoons. I got a few years ago (probably at Cost Plus) they were really cheap, and they have held up even after hundreds of times through the dishwasher.

I would like to know where to buy more of these since I havn't seen any in stores recently.

[Reefpimp]

The argument against wooden spoons is that they shorten and crack and wear down with age. The counterargument is, We do too.

It's nice to have something so intimately connected with our love of what fuels us and what fuels our passions that will eventually wear out and fade away. Kind of gives one a tie to the past and future at the same time.

[larrylee]

There's no school like old school. We have some silicone spoons but I always revert to a wooden spatula that I got from Bridge many years ago. Compatible with all cookware and it gets used and beat up without guilt or worry.

[Toliver]

After having a humble wooden spoon snap off at the handle while trying to stir a very stiff dough I bought an OXO Wooden Spoon and never looked back.

This is not your parent's wooden spoon. Click on the "See larger image" link to get a better view of the design. The handle feels so much better in my hand than the typical cylindrical wooden spoon handle. I can get a better grip on it because one side of the handle is flat. Plus, the wider handle seems to give me more ergonomic power when stirring.

Leave it to OXO to improve on a classic.

[srhcb]

I second on the bamboo spoons. I got a few years ago (probably at Cost Plus) they were really cheap, and they have held up even after hundreds of times through the dishwasher.

I would like to know where to buy more of these since I havn't seen any in stores recently.

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Chefs has them. Try Penneys too, since they have some sort of cross-branding deal with Chefs.

SB

[Beebs]

Had a much-beloved wooden spoon once.... My Sig. Other stirred cookie batter too hard and snapped it. Was very sad.

So Sig Other bought me a Joyce Chen bamboo spoon to replace it, and I love it!

[Richard Kilgore]

I have spoons of all sorts -- ss, silicone and cheap wood -- and all have their place, but it is the olive wood spoons and spatulas that I reach for most often and find the most pleasing to the eye and the hand and the lip.

[paulraphael]

I love the old school wooden spoon, but like phatj, the bamboo spatula is what I reach for 90% of the time. When I want to taste something, I grab a clean metal spoon ... I find the wooden spoon makes any liquid i sip taste too much like ... wood.

[HungryChris]

I believe the wooden spoons in the kitchen of my youth were hardwood, maple or birch, I think. They had a yellow color and a well used patina and outlasted my tenure there. The ones I use are the 3 pack for a dollar, pine variety. They do not last like the hardwood ones. Some have curved handles from a steam bath or two and some a burnt end or handle from being left too close to the flame, but they are indeed an item I try to never be without. I know the dishwasher isn't the place for any wood, but in they go nonetheless.

HC

[Fat Guy]

The ones I use are the cheap pine variety, unfinished, never more than about 50 cents, I wash them in the dishwasher, and I replace them every few years -- I'd guess an average of every five years. Maybe I should get some heirloom-quality beech, olive or bamboo ones.

[srhcb]

Maybe I should get some heirloom-quality beech, olive or bamboo ones.

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Or else insinuate yourself onto My Christmas Gift List?

SB

[I_call_the_duck]

I like to use silicon spatulas for eggs, but use wooden spoons for almost everything else. Have no idea what they're made of, but it's of a harder wood. My favorite is one with a flat end.

I use a dollar spoon to stuff garbage down the disposal (clearly marked "for disposal only").

[snowangel]

I nabbed my grandmother's wooden spoons because everyone else was more interested in other things. One of them has a really long handle -- perfect!

[I_call_the_duck]

^^Yeah, one of the spoons I use on a regular basis belonged to my MIL. My husband saved everything.

[SheenaGreena]

I echo the praise on the wooden spoon. I grew up seeing my mom stir, fry, mix, etc. with her worn down wooden spoon. Hers was rubbed down about an inch shorter than it's original length and had developed a fine sheen on it. I would wait for that special moment when she would turn to me and tell me "Here, taste this". In that moment, a mother-daughter connection is made. I get to taste first-hand whatever food she is cooking and I get to make an important decision - "add more salt? / Not sweet enough? / Just right!".

I vowed that when I grew up and had my own kitchen, I would have my own wooden spoon. Now I do and it's my turn to connect with my sons by having them taste the food and make an important decision. When my sons grow up and get married, they're getting a package of wooden spoons and spatulas from me, for their kitchen.

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that was always a good memory for me as well

however, a bad one involved the wooden spoon meeting my butt or my arm when I did something bad as kid