Wooden Utensils, Classic or Dud?

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I say dud. Maybe I'm getting old and paranoid, but they just seem like bacteria collection devices to me, especially when my daughter makes (shudder) Kraft Mac & Cheese and leaves her favorite spoon unwashed for days. What do you need a wooden spoon for that you can't do with a high-heat spatula or a hard plastic spoon?

― William Crump (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 15:45 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh man, classic as long as you have the right one. I had a thin wooden spatula with a flat, slanted bottom... I had it forever and could saute, mix, turn things over with it... [sniff] I loved that thing. Recently, when I was trying to scoop rice out of my rice cooker with it, it broke. I tried replacing it, but it's not the same. The new ones get stained too easily or they're all sticky around the handle where I peeled off the sticker or they're too bulky and stupid-looking.

So I guess: old favorites = classic; new wooden pieces of garbage = dud.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 16:14 (nineteen years ago) link

VG- try an olive wood one. I have one like you described (thin wooden spatula with a flat, slanted bottom) that's indispensible. It may be half of a salad server set...

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 17:12 (nineteen years ago) link

I love wooden spoons. They just have a substantiveness that you can't get with any kind of plastic. They feel good in your hand, they feel good against the cookware and they feel good in the food. But they have to be shaped right and made out of the right kinds of wood. The cheapo rounded ones from department stores just don't cut it.

― Hey Jude, Tuesday, 19 October 2004 17:49 (nineteen years ago) link

my Mum has a wooden spoon which she's had since she and my Dad first got a house (some 32 years ago), she always stirs things at the same angle and so it has a ground down edge on one side which fits perfectly into the corners of her pans, jesus, I really covet that spoon.

― Porkpie (porkpie), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 18:32 (nineteen years ago) link

classic. it's been found that wood doesnt harbor bacteria the way that plastic does. the science was explained to me once, but I dont remember.

years ago, whoever is in charge of such things made it illegal for restaurant kitchens to have wooding cutting boards because of some bogus bacteria issues. so, everyone was forced to switch to plastic cutting boards (that could be run through the dish sanitizer) and it turns out that the little grooves that a knife puts in the plastic harbor way more bacteria that the wood ever could. go figure.

― mayo apetrain (mayoape), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 18:33 (nineteen years ago) link

I tend to use stainless steel for everything--pans,utensils, etc hence no wooden spoons in these parts.

― Orbit (Orbit), Wednesday, 20 October 2004 01:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Good god, how do you live without non-stick coating?

Classic, btw. I love old wooden spoons.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Wednesday, 20 October 2004 12:30 (nineteen years ago) link

We have an olive wood spoon that is nice and a cheap wooden one that is not so but keeps surviving. I've broken all the other wooden spoons we had in the Kitchenaid. I don't worry so much about the bacteria, but I don't like the odor/flavor retention properties of the softer woods. And I'm quite happy with the silicone spatula/spoon I got a few weeks ago. So, I'm leaning toward dud.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 20 October 2004 13:24 (nineteen years ago) link

Good god, how do you live without non-stick coating?

It keeps me on my toes with timing and technique!

― Orbit (Orbit), Thursday, 21 October 2004 19:45 (nineteen years ago) link

And it's not just wooden spoons either. A wooden fork for browning mince is an essential tool. I got mine for 49p from Oxfam, and It's one of the best 49ps I've ever spent.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Friday, 22 October 2004 08:48 (nineteen years ago) link

William, my mother always says "you eat a peck of muck in your life". i don't know what this means though ;)

liz, are you really some sort of non-stickist? all my pans are stainless steel, it's the sensible way forward :)

i have a wooden spoon, unfortunately being left-handed the square bit at the end is on the "wrong" side, but i'm kind of used to it now...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Saturday, 23 October 2004 09:42 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm non-stick because I'm lazy. I grew up with Le Creuset and it spoiled me for life.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Monday, 25 October 2004 09:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Classic all the way. Plastic = dud.

― ng, Wednesday, 27 October 2004 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Another nice thing about wooden utensils: if the square bit is on the "wrong" side, grab your pocket knife and whittle it the other way! Plastic is usually too thin for these little adjustments and it's too easy to make a large cut where you want a small one.

― Richard Haley, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 12:26 (nineteen years ago) link

I never thought about that--interesting idea

― Orbit (Orbit), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 15:28 (nineteen years ago) link

Another advantage to wooden utensils I happened to notice while watching Iron Chef: you can leave them in a hot pan leaning on the edge and all they'll do is char a bit. Try that with plastic! Actually don't, it would be nasty.

― Richard Haley, Wednesday, 24 November 2004 23:39 (nineteen years ago) link

three months pass...

my mum has a pet wooden spoon which is so old and battered and manky looking that HER mum — since passed on, though not for this reason — always referred to it as "e coli"

mum maintains that anything stirred w.it = tastes better w/o fail

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 5 March 2005 19:25 (nineteen years ago) link

This whole thread is setting my teeth on edge. Putting a wooden spoon in my mouth and dragging it out across my teeth (eg. to remove some baked beans which are stuck to the spoon) is bleurgh. But I couldn't live without wooden spoons.

― Madchen (Madchen), Monday, 7 March 2005 13:41 (nineteen years ago) link

you can leave them in a hot pan leaning on the edge and all they'll do is char a bit.

There are that many pots and bottles round my stove top that there's always something to lean the spoon on - no charring.

― Matt (Matt), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 07:49 (nineteen years ago) link

seventeen years pass...

they rot

― | (Latham Green), Thursday, 20 October 2022 03:44 (one year ago) link

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