List of types of spoons facts for kids

A spoon is a common tool we use every day for eating, cooking, and serving food. It has a small bowl at one end of a handle. There are many different kinds of spoons, each designed for a special purpose. Some are for eating certain foods, others are for cooking, and some are even used for ceremonies!

Spoons for Eating

These spoons help us get food from a dish to our mouth. Their names often come from the food they are used with, what they are made of, or how they look.

• Bouillon spoon — This spoon has a round bowl and is a bit smaller than a soup spoon. It's great for clear broths.
• Caviar spoon — Usually made from materials like mother of pearl, gold, animal horn, or wood. Silver is not used because it can change the delicate taste of caviar.
• Chinese spoon — A type of soup spoon with a short, thick handle and a deep, flat bowl.
• Coffee spoon — A small spoon used for stirring coffee in small cups. It's usually smaller than a teaspoon.
• Cutty — A short spoon, mostly used in Scotland and Ireland.
• Demitasse spoon — A very tiny spoon, even smaller than a coffee spoon. It's used for traditional coffee drinks in special small cups, like for sipping cappuccino froth.
• Dessert spoon — This spoon is in between a teaspoon and a tablespoon in size. It's used for eating dessert, and sometimes for soup or cereal.
• Egg spoon — Designed for eating soft boiled eggs. It has a shorter handle and a rounder bowl than a teaspoon, making it easy to scoop egg out of the shell.
• French sauce spoon — Similar to a dessert spoon, but with a flatter bowl that has a small notch. It's used for eating sauce.
• Grapefruit spoon or orange spoon — This spoon has a sharp point or tiny teeth at the end. It's perfect for eating citrus fruits and melons.
• Gumbo or Chowder spoon — A large spoon with a round bowl, usually about 7 inches long.
• Horn spoon — A spoon made from animal horn. These are still used for eating boiled eggs because they don't get stained by the egg's sulfur, unlike silver spoons. Horn or mother-of-pearl spoons are also used for caviar because silver can affect its taste.
• Iced tea spoon or parfait spoon — This spoon has a bowl similar to a teaspoon but a long, thin handle. It's used for stirring tall drinks or eating foods like parfait and sundaes from tall glasses.
• Korean spoon — A spoon with a long handle, often with a shallow point at the end of the bowl.
• Marrow spoon or marrow scoop — From the 1700s, often made of silver. It has a long, thin bowl perfect for removing marrow from bones.
• Melon spoon — Often made of silver, used for eating melon.
• Plastic spoon — These spoons are cheap, can be thrown away, and are flexible. They come in many colors and are used for various purposes.
• Rattail spoon — Developed in the late 1600s. It has a thin, pointed part on the bottom of the bowl that strengthens where the bowl and handle join.
• Salt spoon — A tiny spoon used with an open salt cellar for serving salt to individuals.
• Saucier spoon — A slightly flattened spoon with a notch on one side. It's used for drizzling sauces over delicate foods like fish.
• Soup spoon — A spoon with a large or rounded bowl, made for eating soup.
  • Cream-soup spoon — This spoon has a round bowl and is a bit shorter than a regular soup spoon.
• Teaspoon — A small spoon, good for stirring and sipping tea or coffee. In cooking, it's a standard measure of volume.
• Tablespoon — A larger spoon, sometimes used for ice cream and soup. In cooking, it's a standard measure of volume, equal to three teaspoons.
• M1926 spoon — An army-issued spoon used with mess kits from 1941 to 2002. It holds the same amount as two tablespoons.
• Seal-top spoon — A silver spoon popular in England in the late 1500s and 1600s. The end of its handle looks like a circular seal.
• Spork, sporf, spife, splayd, etc. — These are cool tools that combine a spoon with a fork or a knife.
• Stroon — This is a straw with a spoon on the end, perfect for eating slushies and similar drinks.

Spoons for Cooking and Serving

These spoons are mainly used in the kitchen for preparing, handling, or serving food. Many are named after the food they are designed for.

An Absinthe spoon

• Absinthe spoon — This spoon has holes or slots. It's used to dissolve a sugar cube in a glass of absinthe. It usually has a flat bowl and a notch to rest on the glass rim.
• Bar spoon — Similar in size to a teaspoon, used for measuring ingredients when making mixed drinks.
• Berry spoon — A large spoon with a wide, deep bowl. It's used for serving berries, salad, and other juicy foods.
• Bonbon spoon — This spoon has a flat bowl with holes, used for serving bonbons and nuts.
• Caddy spoon — Used for measuring tea leaves. These spoons were traditionally made of silver.
• Chutney spoon — Used for serving chutneys, especially mango chutney, from a shared dish. It helps keep things hygienic.

A honey spoon

• Honey spoon — A spoon designed for scooping honey from a pot or jar.
• Jelly or Jam spoon — Used for serving fruit preserves. Sometimes it has a point and an unusual edge.
• Ladle — A spoon with a deep bowl and a long handle attached at a steep angle. It's used to scoop and pour liquids like soup.

A Mote spoon

• Mote spoon — This spoon has holes and is used to strain loose tea from a cup. The spike on its handle helps clear a teapot spout.
• Mustard spoon — A small spoon with a deep, scoop-shaped bowl set at a right angle to the handle. It's used for serving mustard.
• Olive spoon — Used to take olives out of their liquid. It has slots or a hole in the bowl to let the liquid drain away. It can also be used for cherries, cocktail onions, or pickled garlic.
• Panja — A serving spoon for rice used in India. It has four finger-shaped dents and a flat surface. It often has a hole at the end for hanging.
• Rice spoon — Used for serving rice. In Japan, it's called a shamoji.
• Salt spoon — A tiny spoon used with an open salt cellar for serving salt to individuals.
• Serving spoon — A large spoon used for serving salads, vegetables, and fruits. Its bowl is usually round, not oval, to pick up food easily, and it has a long handle.
• Slotted spoon — This spoon has slots, holes, or other openings in its bowl. It lets liquid pass through while keeping the solid food on top.
• Spaghetti spoon — These spoons have large prongs for serving cooked spaghetti. Some even have a hole in the middle to measure uncooked spaghetti.
• Straw spoon — This is a straw with a curved spoon end, usually used for eating the last bits of ice-blended drinks.
• Stirrer — A tool with a long stem and usually a spoon end, used for mixing drinks.
• Sugar spoon or sugar shell — Used for serving granulated sugar. The bowl often looks like a sea shell.
• Tablespoon — A large spoon, often used for serving food in the UK, and commonly used for eating in the US.
• Wooden spoon — A spoon made of wood, very commonly used in cooking.
• Ice-cream spoon — Used to scoop ice cream into a round shape.

Other Spoon-Shaped Objects

These items look like spoons but are used for special ceremonies, as gifts, or for other purposes besides eating.

• Anointing spoon or coronation spoon — A silver spoon that is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. It's used in the ceremony where English kings and queens are crowned, and has been used since the 1100s.
• Apostle spoon — A special gift given at a christening (a baby's naming ceremony). It has a small statue of one of the apostles at the end of the handle.
• Cochlear — A spoon used in the Eastern Orthodox Church to serve consecrated wine, sometimes with a piece of the sacramental bread.
• Ear spoon — A small spoon once used to remove earwax. These were more common before cotton swabs became popular.
• Lovespoon — A wooden spoon, often with a double bowl, that was traditionally carved by a Welsh man as a gift for his future bride.
• Maidenhead spoon — A silver or silver-gilt spoon from the 1500s. Its handle ends in a small statue of the Virgin Mary.
• Silver spoon — A small spoon sometimes given to a newborn baby for good luck. The phrase "born with a silver spoon in their mouth" means someone was born into a very rich family.
• Snuff spoon — A tiny spoon used for taking snuff (a type of powdered tobacco) to avoid getting powder on the fingers. These spoons are so small they are often mistaken for toy spoons.
• Souvenir spoon — A decorative spoon used to remember a special place or event.
• Uddharani — A small gold, silver, copper, or brass spoon used in Hindu prayers (puja) for rituals like Achamana (sipping water) and offering water.
• Wooden spoon (award) — A spoon made of wood given as an award. Originally, it was given at Cambridge University to the student who scored lowest among those taking honors in math.
• Water Dipper — A spoon with a very large bowl, used for scooping water, often for bathing.
• Siwur — A dipper made from a coconut shell, commonly used for bathing. It's also a key item in the Jailangkung ritual (a traditional Indonesian game).