Different Cooking Spoon Types Your Kitchen Needs
Scoop, stir & skim.
Spoons are among the most versatile and essential kitchen utensils you can have. Whether you’re cooking or eating, there might come a time when you need a certain spoon to tackle your food. Here are 22 cooking spoon types to know so you’re prepared for any type of culinary experience.
1. Mixing Spoon
Mixing spoons are one of the common kitchen spoons – every kitchen needs one! While their name suggests that they are primarily used for mixing and stirring your food, they can also be used for scooping and transferring food to plates. Their spoon mouth is smaller and slimmer than some cooking spoon types, but they have a large-enough surface area to scoop your food to your plate.
Basting kitchen spoons are used to scoop juices from meat or fish you’re cooking to pour over the meat. Basting spoons have a deeper dip in the middle and a larger surface area than a traditional dinner spoon to best collect the juice in order to pour a generous amount over the meat and keep your food flavorful.
Noodles become wet and slippery when they begin to boil, which makes them tricky to retrieve from the pot. A pasta spoon has a deep bowl curve in the center with slots to drain excess water as you scoop the noodles out of the pot. The ridged edges of the pasta spoon make it possible to grab the noodles and transfer them securely onto your plate, whereas typical cooking spoons become slick and might lose their grip on the noodles.
Slotted spoons are handy cooking spoon types to have in your kitchen when you need to scoop food while draining water, thick sauces, or broths. They typically have three large slits in the middle for the excess liquid to drain out of, while the dip of the center is wide enough to hold your food and keep it from falling off the side of the spoon.
Skimmer spoons are typically made of mesh or thin wire and are used for – you guessed it – skimming. You can use them to skim fat or foam out of your soup or to separate solid foods from liquid. Skimmer spoons are especially helpful if you frequently fry food because they allow you to scoop out your cooked food while draining the excess oil.
Pointed kitchen spoons are versatile in use and are perfect for stir-frys or other dishes where you might need to cook ground meat so you can break the meat up into fine pieces. Their pointed edges make it easy to stir your meal while reaching the corners or edges of your pots and pans, and still being able to scoop and hold your food thanks to the center dip.
A tasting spoon’s purpose is in its name – to taste! These spoons are a lot smaller than other types of kitchen spoons since their main purpose is to taste a sauce or soup before it’s ready to eat. Because of this, there isn’t a large dip in the center of this spoon or surface area designed to pick up food.
Stirring spoons have long handles with a small spoon on the end. Very similar to bar spoons, they are used to mix liquids to create a depth of flavor with the various ingredients you’re blending together. Their thin handle ensures that all the ingredients are swirled together effectively, and they include a small spoon at the end to taste.
A ladle has the largest and deepest spoon mouth of all cooking spoon types. Ladles are used to scoop out large portions of soup or sauces for the biggest servings. Their depth allows them to pick up broth along with food, which makes them the perfect utensil for soups or saucy dishes.
Measuring spoons are very necessary kitchen spoons since they help you measure out spices you use during the cooking and baking process. Measuring spoons have different teaspoon and tablespoon sizes so you get the perfect amount of spices every time.
Cooking a thick sauce or stew? Having a spurtle spoon will come in handy as you simmer your dinner. The spurtle spoon was designed with flat sides to stir thicker liquids to keep them from clumping (which can happen naturally with a traditional spoon) and to gently scrape the bottom of the pot to prevent burning or sticking.
A serving spoon has the largest mouth out of all kitchen spoons. That’s because this spoon’s main purpose is to serve, as its name implies. Serving spoons can work for any dish since their large bowl can pick up large quantities of food and transfer it to plates.
Designed to make eating a hard-boiled egg easier, the egg spoon is a compact version of the teaspoon to make scooping the contents of the inside of an egg easier. These spoons have a shorter handle and a smaller, more rounded bowl opposed to a standard teaspoon.
The standard dinner spoon is generally the size of a tablespoon and is used for enjoying the main course of a meal. The dinner spoon’s mouth is more circular instead of being pointed or shaped like an oval, so you can get a good bite of your dinner to enjoy all the flavors in your dish.
Hence their name, teaspoons hold about a teaspoon of liquid, though they are used for stirring and eating rather than measuring. In a formal place setting, teaspoons are placed to the right of the dinner spoon and are used for stirring coffee or tea, or taking bites of soft desserts like mousse or pudding.
Soup spoons are like your standard dinner spoon, but with a wider mouth. If you’re eating a brothy soup or chowder, the soup spoon has a large enough surface area to give you a full bite. Their spoon mouth is shaped like a circle instead of the oval that most dinner spoons have.
The Asian soup spoon has a different build. This spoon has a short, thick handle that extends into a deep bowl that’s rather flat on the bottom. Since the bottom of these spoons are flat, they are able to hold broth and solid bites of soup like noodles, vegetables, or meat.
Dessert spoons, also known as coffee or espresso spoons, are the smallest amongst your flatware at a formal place setting. They feature a more pointed mouth than dinner spoons and can be used for anything from stirring coffee to tasting soft desserts!
Ice cream spoons are also frequently referred to as iced beverage spoons and can be used for eating out of deep sundae dishes or stirring tall glasses of iced tea. The long handle and small circular mouth of an ice cream spoon is just what you need to scoop or stir with ease without your fingers getting sticky.
A bar spoon is similar to a stirring spoon, with one little change. The long handle of a bar spoon contains swirls that are designed to better blend the drink you’re mixing. The length of the handle helps to tackle tall pitches or shakers so the entire capacity of the drink can be blended to perfection.
Grapefruit spoons are easily identified by their pointed nose and serrated edges that are used to scoop the flesh out of a halved grapefruit. It’s rare to find grapefruit spoons in a place setting because of their hyper-specific function, but they are a useful utensil to have handy if you like to enjoy grapefruit fresh from the rind.
While a resting spoon won’t help you stir or cook, it’ll give the kitchen spoons you are cooking with a place to sit! As in the picture above, a resting spoon provides a place for your cooking spoons to lay so they don’t get sauce on your countertops.
Now that you know the different cooking spoon types, it’s time to stock your utensils!
