Wooden spoons, essential in every kitchen, are among the oldest and simplest cooking utensils. Despite their simplicity, not all wooden spoons are created equal. The finest ones are crafted from dense hardwoods such as beech, maple, olive, walnut, or cherry, typically carved from a single solid piece to ensure durability. It’s important to hand-wash solid wood spoons to prevent drying and cracking, though with proper care, they can last for many years.
To assist you in selecting the ideal spoons for your kitchen, we thoroughly researched and tested the highest-rated options. Each spoon was used to stir various foods, from soups to dough, evaluating their performance in terms of design, comfort, durability, and overall value.
Best Overall
Sabatier All-Purpose Spoon
Pros: This spoon effortlessly aced nearly all our tests and boasts an attractive appearance.
Cons: The olive wood material, while aesthetically pleasing with its unique grain, is less durable compared to other woods.
The Sabatier All-Purpose Spoon lives up to its versatile name, excelling across all our trials. It particularly shined during the oatmeal test, thanks to its rounded shape and deep bowl that facilitated effortless stirring and serving. Its long handle offers flexibility for use with various pot depths, maintaining a sturdy feel during stirring and scraping.
Crafted from olive wood, renowned for its distinctive grain patterns, this spoon’s aesthetic appeal is undeniable. However, it is less resistant to water and more susceptible to dings and damage. While the handle retained its smoothness throughout our tests, the bowl began to show signs of roughening after repeated hand-washings.
Material: Olive | Dimensions: 13.75 x 2.72 inches | Weight: 2.8 ounces
Best Value
FAAY Teak Cooking Spoon
Pros: Constructed from teak wood, this affordable spoon offers durability and excellent water resistance.
Cons: While its oval-shaped design is effective for stirring and serving, it may not be optimal for scraping up fond.
Teak wood, known for its strength and weather-resistant properties ideal for outdoor furniture, also proves excellent for wooden spoons like FAAY’s. Throughout our tests, it performed admirably, effortlessly breaking up ground sausage despite its oval shape. The deep bowl facilitates easy scooping and serving of food. While not suitable for dishwashers, it cleans up easily with minimal effort—dried-on oatmeal easily wipes away with a gentle scrub.
For those seeking a cost-effective, high-value wooden spoon, The FAAY is a standout choice. Our only critique is that the rounded spoon head doesn’t excel as much as those with corners or flat sides in reaching pan edges and scraping off cooked-on residue.
Material: Teak | Dimensions: 14 x 2.75 inches | Weight: 2.4 ounces
Best Splurge
Le Creuset Revolution Scraping Spoon
Pros: This spoon’s distinctive shape provides a significant advantage in the kitchen.
Cons: It comes with a relatively high price tag for a wooden spoon.
While Le Creuset is renowned for its enameled cast iron Dutch ovens, the brand also excels in crafting luxurious kitchenware. What sets this spoon apart is its innovative flat scraping head, perfectly designed to release stuck-on bits from pans. It doubles as a spatula for flipping and moving items, and its generous bowl makes serving food effortless.
The Le Creuset Revolution Scraping Spoon is ergonomically designed for use on stovetops or at the table, weighing and measuring in the mid-range among all the spoons we tested. It passed our durability tests with minimal wear, performing admirably across various cooking tasks. Although it wasn’t our top pick, its unique design and functionality make it a standout choice, ideal for upscale housewarmings or as a thoughtful host gift.
Material: Beech | Dimensions: 13 x 2.5 inches | Weight: 2.1 ounces
Best Multipurpose
Jonathan’s Spoons Spootle
Pros: This spoon/spatula excels in stirring, offers comfortable handling, and cleans up easily.
Cons: The shallow bowl may not be ideal for serving foods such as oatmeal.
Ever wondered what a spootle is? It’s a versatile hybrid of spatula and spoon, featuring a flat edge for flipping and a hollowed-out bowl for stirring and serving. Its charming cherry-wood color and quirky design make it a standout in any utensil holder. The material is durable yet slightly flexible, ensuring the Jonathan’s Spoons Spootle performed well across all our tests.
However, due to its spatula edge, the spootle has a smaller capacity. The compact, circular bowl may not hold as much oatmeal per scoop compared to more traditional designs. Left-handed users should consider the lefty version, angled accordingly for their comfort.
Material: Cherry | Dimensions: 12.75 x 2.5 inches | Weight: 1.7 ounces
Best for Serving
Made In The Wooden Spoon
Pros: The wide spoon head is ideal for stirring and serving, and its attractive appearance makes it suitable for table settings.
Cons: The surface began to roughen after only a few washes.
A serving spoon not only excels at stirring and scraping on the stovetop but should also serve as an aesthetically pleasing tabletop accessory capable of dishing out dishes like meatballs, chili, and stews. Made In’s version features a generously sized bowl crafted from close-grained beech wood, boasting a beautiful blonde hue.
The spoon’s unique shape enhances its utility: the slight corners facilitate better maneuverability around pan edges compared to perfectly round bowls. However, we found the triangular profile of the handle less comfortable to grip than circular ones. Additionally, the wood developed a rough texture after repeated washings, indicating potential durability concerns.
Material: Beech | Dimensions: 13 x 3.25 inches | Weight: 2.1 ounces
Best Set
Tovolo 6 Piece Olivewood Utensil Set
Pros: This charming rustic set offers a complete array of matching tools for stirring, spreading, flipping, and serving.
Cons: If you’re only in the market for one new spoon, the cost of the entire set might not be justified.
Another standout in rustic olive wood, the Tovolo package provides a comprehensive set of stovetop and tableside tools. The angled turner effortlessly slides under delicate fried eggs or omelets, while the standard and slotted spoons stir and strain ingredients from liquids or oils. Additionally, it includes two sizes of “spoonula” for scraping and scooping, along with a spreader perfect for applying spreads like cream cheese or jam.
While it’s the priciest option on our list, this set offers excellent value, averaging less than $10 per piece. However, this assumes you require all six tools and aren’t seeking to replace just a single spoon. Some users noted the wood’s surface tended to be rougher compared to higher-ranked competitors.
Material: Olive | Includes: Angled turner, slotted spoon, mixing spoon, spreader, spoonula, mini spoonula
Best Bamboo
KitchenAid Universal Bamboo Basting Spoon
Pros: This versatile tool is affordable, adaptable, and crafted from sustainable bamboo.
Cons: The surface texture feels rough, and bamboo may not offer the longevity of other materials.
Bamboo is celebrated for its sustainability, being a robust, flexible, lightweight, and rapidly renewable grass species. KitchenAid’s bamboo spoon maintains a traditional appearance, featuring a thin edge perfect for scraping pan bottoms and sliding under foods. It boasts a generously sized bowl and is remarkably budget-friendly—the most economical option among all the spoons we tested.
However, bamboo tends to dry out easily, leading to potential cracking and roughening over time. The surface of this spoon wasn’t initially smooth and may degrade with prolonged heavy use. Nevertheless, even if it eventually breaks, replacing it for a few dollars would still cost less than some of the more luxurious spoons on our list.
Material: Bamboo | Dimensions: 13 x 2.75 inches | Weight: 2.1 ounces
Best Dishwasher-Safe
Epicurean Chef Series Large Spoon
Pros: This spoon’s innovative composite material is extremely durable and effortless to clean.
Cons: The handle lacks comfort, and the shallow bowl doesn’t scoop effectively.
Unlike traditional wooden spoons, which are typically not dishwasher-safe due to their porous nature, the Epicurean Chef’s spoon stands out with its use of Richlite, a paper-based composite. This material is completely non-porous yet retains the softness and texture of wood without scratching surfaces. Despite being lightweight, it proved remarkably resilient during our tests.
However, we found the spoon’s design somewhat lacking. The handle’s square corners are less comfortable to grip, and the oval head’s shallow bowl doesn’t excel at scooping or scraping tasks. Nevertheless, for those who prefer dishwasher convenience over hand-washing, this spoon could be an ideal choice.
Material: Richlite | Dimensions: 13.5 x 2.75 inches | Weight: 0.8 ounces
Our Favorite Wooden Spoon
The Sabatier All-Purpose Spoon excelled in every test, showcasing its versatility and efficiency. Comfortable to hold and crafted from distinctive olive wood, it’s a must-have for cooks of any skill level. For those seeking a budget-friendly option, the FAAY Teak Cooking Spoon offers impressive durability without breaking the bank.
How We Tested Wooden Spoons
We conducted tests on 13 wooden spoons in our kitchens, subjecting each to the same set of exercises to assess usability and durability.
For the Sausage Test, we cooked sausage in a skillet, using each spoon to break up the links for dishes like sausage pasta. We evaluated how well the spoons mashed the meat and scraped bits off the pan’s bottom and corners. The spoons were then used to transfer the cooked sausage to a bowl to assess scooping ability. Afterward, we hand-washed the spoons to check for grease retention and odors.
In the Oatmeal Test, we cooked oatmeal, allowing it to sit undisturbed for 10 minutes to stick to the pan’s surfaces. Each spoon was used to scrape and stir the stuck oatmeal, testing their effectiveness in reaching pan crevices. We examined how easily dried oatmeal residue washed off the spoons.
Durability Tests included various challenges. We applied pressure to different parts of the spoon handle against a counter to check for flexing or weak points. The spoon heads were struck against the counter 20 times to detect dents or damage. We also submerged the spoons in hot water for 10 minutes, observing any resulting damage or wear, although this practice is not recommended for wooden tools. Finally, we monitored any changes in texture or signs of deterioration after repeated washings.
Following these performance evaluations, we disclosed the retail prices of the spoons, which ranged from $6 to $36 at the time of testing, averaging $21.
What Didn’t Make the List
The spoons at the bottom of our performance list prioritize aesthetics over functionality. The Earlywood Large Flat Saute is an eye-catching minimalist tool that theoretically serves as a spoon, spatula, or half of tongs—a design we admire. However, it proved challenging to use effectively in most of our spoon-related tasks. Material’s The Wood Spoon features a traditional angled design aimed at reaching corners and is touted as suitable for both left- and right-handed users. Unfortunately, its shallow bowl rendered it largely impractical, especially considering its relatively high cost.
Factors to Consider
Material:
While all wooden spoons are made from wood, not all types of wood are equally suitable. The ideal wood for spoons should be durable yet slightly flexible, and moderately resistant to water. Soft woods like pine and extremely hard woods like oak are uncommon choices for spoons, with most opting for woods that fall in between. Additionally, the choice of wood impacts aesthetics, with different varieties offering various colors and grain patterns.
Shape:
The spoon’s head, where the action happens, dictates its functionality. Generally, a more rounded head is optimal for stirring and serving tasks. However, spoons with angled or flat edges excel at reaching corners and scraping pans to ensure thorough ingredient incorporation. A thinner spoon can also double as a spatula, adept at sliding beneath foods for loosening and flipping.
The handle shape is equally critical, affecting comfort during use. Ideally, it should fit comfortably in the palm and fingers without requiring awkward twisting. Through testing, we found round handles to be far more ergonomic than those with angular corners.
Cleaning:
Most wooden spoons are not suitable for dishwashers due to the hot, high-pressure water that can damage unfinished wood over time. Hand-washing is recommended, especially for spoons with a smoother surface that’s easier to scrub clean. Rough textures tend to retain food particles and can signal the spoon’s deterioration. An ideal wooden spoon maintains a smooth surface even after multiple washes. Exceptions include spoons like the Epicurean Chef spoon mentioned earlier, which is dishwasher-safe due to its non-porous composite of wood fibers and resin.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of tasks are wooden spoons best for? According to seafood-focused chef Michael Andrzejewski, a former contestant on Food Network’s Chopped, “I prefer to use wooden and bamboo spoons for dishes that need a good deal of stirring: thicker sauces, risotto, caramelizing onions, etc. They are more friendly to non-stick and Teflon pans; I always have a nice result when using one to make a French omelet.”
Which material is better for a spoon: wood or bamboo? “I think it’s a matter of preference,” Andrzejewski says. “Bamboo comes in a wider variety of shapes and sizes and is certainly more affordable than a good wooden utensil. I feel that wood has the benefit of a better feel in your hand; if you cook a lot, that’s very important. Regarding the environmental differences, there are arguments to be made for or against either type of spoon. Sustainability is an issue, but the transportation and processing of bamboo are also environmentally demanding.”
How do you care for wooden spoons? The key to maintaining wooden kitchen tools of any kind is to keep them away from excessive moisture. If wood sits in a simmering pot, soaks in a sink, or goes in the dishwasher, it will absorb water and swell up. When it dries again, the wood shrinks, causing cracks or weak spots. It’s essential to hand-wash unfinished wood implements and ensure they are thoroughly dried before storage. For optimal longevity, periodically rub your wooden spoon with food-safe mineral oil, similar to caring for a wooden cutting board.
