No day passes and I have not used a spoon in my daily life. The question is can you live without using a spoon? I think the answer is no/. Let’s take this chance to understand the different spoons available and their uses. Let’s define a spoon first.
WHAT IS A SPOON?
For this write up a spoon shall be defined apiece of cutlery shallow oval or round bowl at the end of the handle.
Spoons can be grouped into three main types based on their uses and purposes. The three core uses of spoons are; eating, cooking and some specific functions and designs.
Let’s look at the different types of spoons and their uses next; starting with those that are essential for eating
SPOONS USED FOR EATING
The spoons below aid the process of eating by making it easier and comfortable.
DINNER SPOON
Dinner spoons are large in size and can be at the dinner table for drinking the soup. A dinner spoon is larger than a teaspoon but not as large as a tablespoon. A dinner spoon is positioned to the right of the knife in a table place setting.
DESSERT SPOON
Dessert spoons have a bowel that is generally pointed than rounded. Its size varies between the teaspoon and the tablespoon.
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COFFEE SPOON
These are small spoons slightly small than the teaspoon. They are used for stirring and sipping coffee from a small coffee cup. Dessert spoons are commonly used in formal table settings and food servings. The dessert spoon is commonly brought together with the fruits or arranged separately on top of a plate away from the other pieces of cutlery.
EGG SPOON
This is a specialised spoon for eating the boiled egg. An egg spoon has a rounded bowel designed to enable easy scooping of the egg’s contents. It has a short handle and a short bowel. The sulphur in the eggs often reacts with the silver on spoons and tarnishes it. For this reason, egg spoon silver is coated with gold, or made of wood, horn, or porcelain.
GRAPE FRUIT SPOON
It is similar to the shape and size of a teaspoon but with a sharp serrated edge. It helps the user to easily scoop individual segments of the grapefruit from the rind. It is commonly used for eating citrus fruits.
MELON SPOON
These spoons are also called Melon balers. These help to make melon balls from with each scope making a ball of 1 centimetre to 3 centimetres. Melon spoons are commonly made out of stainless steel, with wooden or metallic handles. Melon spoons are can be used for scoping other soft fruits and ice cream.
SOUP SPOON
Soup spoons are designed with larger bowels which are a little deeper to make it easier for one to scoop soup without spilling. There are two main types of soup spoons the British one and the Chinese one. British soup spoons are small with a very circular bowel while the Chinese soup spoon has a thick flat handle and a deep bowl. The Chinese soup spoon varies from small to large sizes and is commonly made out of ceramic.
BABY SPOON
Baby spoons are used for feeding babies. These are very small in size and are often coated with rubber or silicone to avoid any injuries to the baby. Some baby spoons have been modified to give off a warning light if the baby’s food is still hot. They are made to fit parenting needs and precautions.
Spoons are also extensively used for cooking food and serving it. let us look at the different types of spoons under this category next;
SPOONS USED FOR COOKING AND SERVING FOOD
we use spoons in serving and cooking food daily, I can’t imagine what life would be without all these spoons.
BAR SPOON
A bar spoon is a long-handled spoon used for mixing non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages. The handle is long enough so that it can reach the bottom of long and tall jugs.
LADLE
A ladle is a large spoon used for serving food that contains a lot of liquids like stews and soups. They are designed with a large handle and a very deep bowl. Some handles are attached straight onto the bowel while in some designers the handle makes an angle/ curve before being attached to the bowel for easy scooping. Ladles are commonly made out of stainless steel but can be made of other materials like wood, aluminium, silver, plastic, and melamine
SLOTTED SPOON
Slotted spoons are used for scooping and separating solid food from liquids. They have holes, slots and other forms of opening in the bowel that allow the liquid to drain through. Their original purpose was to separate boiling oil from fried food like fries. This spoon acts as a sieve with a long handle that enables the cook to stand far away from the stove and the hot liquid.
SPAGHETTI SPOON
A Spaghetti spoon is a type of serving spoon that is commonly made out of wood or stainless steel. It is used for holding long spaghetti noodles without breaking them. A spaghetti spoon makes it easy to remove cooked spaghetti from a pot of boiling water. It has protruding wood or metal prongs that allow the noodles to be held, parted, and set on a plate. Most spaghetti spoons have a hole in the centre for draining the water out of the spaghetti.
SALAD SPOON
Salad spoons are commonly made out of wood or any other material which does not chemically react with vinegar. They have a large bowel and a long handle for salad servers is a large and long-handled spoon for stirring salads.
SUGAR SPOON
A sugar spoon is a part of a tea or coffee ware set and service. It is quite similar to a teaspoon but with a deeper bowl and flat edges. The sugar spoon is square-shaped. Its major use is to scoop sugar out of the sugar bowl to the tea or coffee cup.
TABLE SPOON
A tablespoon has a bowel that is larger than a teaspoon. It is professionally a unit of measurement in the kitchen, but to some regions in the world like Uganda, it is the largest spoon used for eating. It is commonly abbreviated as tbsp. or T. The unit of measurement for a tablespoon, however, varies from region to region. In the United States, a tablespoon is approximately 14.8 ml, in the United Kingdom and Canada it is exactly 15 ml, and in Austria, the tablespoon is 20 ml.
TAE SPOON
Often abbreviated as t or tsp., a teaspoon is a small unit of volume measure used in the kitchen for salt, seasoning and any other ingredient as the need arises. The teaspoon is equal to 1/3 tablespoon and is exactly 5 ml. It can be used for other uses like adding sugar, eating ice cream etc.
MEASURING SPOONs
These are spoons used to measure the number of Ingredients and seasoning in the kitchen. The ingredients can be solid, granules, powdered or liquid. The materials used for measuring spoons may be wooden, plastic, metallic, and ceramic
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