Cooking Spoons

Longer than most kitchens buy. Measure the depth of your largest stock pot and add enough that the hand sits above the rim rather than in the steam coming off it.

Handle lengths are listed per product, and specifications covers how we present them. One long spoon per large pot is a reasonable starting point.

On stainless, cast iron and aluminium, no. On anything coated, yes, and the damage is permanent. The scratch becomes a place the coating lifts from.

Keep nylon or silicone spoons with the non-stick pans and steel with everything else. Colour or shape makes the distinction obvious on a busy line.

They have a stated upper temperature, and left leaning against the side of a hot pan they will deform. That rating is on the product page rather than something to assume.

Do not use them to stir in a pan over high direct heat on a gas cooktop. That is what steel is for.

Not the same spoon that goes back into the pot. Keep a pot of clean tasting spoons at the station and a bin for used ones, which is both a hygiene requirement and the only system that works under pressure.

Small service spoons from the commercial spoons range do the job cheaply.

Both. Solid for stirring sauces, reductions and anything where the liquid is the point. Slotted for lifting pasta, dumplings and vegetables out of water.

A perforated spoon or a spider is better again for fine product. See the kitchen utensils range for the lifting tools.

Most stainless goes through a commercial dishwasher. Composite and coated handles depend on the product, and a hollow handle needs to drain rather than fill.

Baked-on sauce needs a soak rather than force. The dishwashing liquids range covers the sink side.

In a cylinder or jug at the station, bowl down, within reach of the pots — not resting across a pan, where the handle gets hot and the bowl drips onto the burner.

A rail or an overshelf above the line keeps them close without using bench space.