Cutlery. And stuff.

[Missy2U]

In this thread here (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=509121), Sigmagirl tells us of the existence of "ice cream spoons". A bunch of us commented on never having heard of 'em and what made them special.

For some reason, this troubled me for most of last night. I know - get a hobby. In any event, I did a little research this morning, and have come to find out lots and lots about spoons and their various types.

I give you:

Your everyday teaspoon. (http://images.replacements.com/images/images5/flatware/R/reed_barton_arlington_stainless_teaspoon_P0000256565S0021T2.jpg) I guess this is the one we'll compare all the other ones to. Gotta have a benchmark, don't ya know!

Tablespoon! (http://foodservice.oneida.com/resources/oneidaFoodservice/images/products/processed/B393STBF.zoom.1.jpg) Also called a serving spoon - it's basically your teaspoon on steriods.

Slotted spoon. (http://easycookin.com/catalog/images/chantal_nonstick_slotted_spoon.jpg) This works real good when I am trying to get carrots and onions out of my roasting pan. They come in metal too!

Soup spoon. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Soup_Spoon.jpg) It's all roundy.

Egg spoon. (http://images.replacements.com/images/images5/flatware/I/international_silver_revere_sterling_1898_egg_spoon_P0000043259S0014T2.jpg) It's like, egg shaped. Kinda. And really small.

Sugar spoon. (http://images.replacements.com/images/images5/flatware/I/international_silver_allure_stainless_lyon_sugar_spoon_P0000042083S0009T2.jpg) I actually HAVE one of these. It fits in my sugar bowl and the handle goes right in the little cut out of the lid of the sugar bowl. That's the sugar bowl. The little cut out is on the other side. (http://images.replacements.com/images/images5/china/N/noritake_palos_verde_sugar_bowl_and_lid_P0000068795S0019T2.jpg) I think. I frankly don't use it. Husband does. Maybe the sugar bowl with the cut out is the little tiny one that's shaped like a pumpkin. I don't remember. It's immaterial anyway.

Grapefruit spoon. (http://premiergourmet.com/catalog/images/grapefruit_spoon.jpg) See the little teethy things? I guess that's to get the sections out. Frankly, I've found a paring knife, five minutes, and a little patience works a whole lot better, but that's just me.

Iced tea spoon. (http://www.oneida.com/resources/oneidaConsumer/images/products/processed/26104TDK.zoom.1.jpg) It's long. To stir sugar or something.

Bar spoon! (http://www.worldbarsupply.com/images/bar-spoon-red-knob.jpg) My dad had one of these - it was all twisty in the handle too! I liked it.

Mixing spoon. (http://www.allianceonline.co.uk/product_images/plastic%20mixing%20spoon%20bsmp0015.jpg) I know. Kinda boring. They come in metal, too. And plastic! If you want the plastic ones, you can get four (or was it three?) of them in a package at WalMart for $.89. Yes, they're worth about as much as the $2 oven thermometer (useless - we returned it) but they work good in cheap non-stick pans! I want some metal ones. I have wooden ones - but I don't really like them much. Except for one - it was my grandmother's and must be 70 years old or something like that.

Ice Cream Spoon! (http://www.jrobinson.com/data/individual/individual_06s.jpg) It looks like they're like little shoveley things. (http://images.surlatable.com/surlatable/images/en_US//local/products/detail/495556.jpg) But they are COOL and I wish I had some. Sigmagirl, you are lucky!

Oooh - there are also soda fountain spoons!! (http://images.surlatable.com/surlatable/images/en_US//local/products/detail/385013.jpg) You know, Sur LaTable has just about everything, doesn't it?

Now this just goes to show that the human spirit and imagination is limitless! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoons) It's a GAME TOO!!!

And a MUSEUM!! (http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/6232/index.html)

And now this is just getting silly. Fishing spoons. Right. Like I believe THIS is real. (http://www.willylures.com/shared_images/AllCastingSpoons.jpg)

My, my, my - the world of spoons is a fascinating one.

So. Does anyone else have ice cream spoons or other amazing/odd/hard to be believed cutlery (or card games or fishing lures)? (Yeah, that's what started this. Spoons.)

[Sigmagirl]

Oh, my mother's sterling service has what we always called pickle forks, but what Replacements is calling cocktail/seafood forks. They also have pickle forks, which is something else entirely. Now I have another web site to spend all day on. Here's (http://www.replacements.com/webquote/WSSLAH.htm)my mother's pattern. She was born in 1924 and graduated from high school in 1942. The pattern was introduced in 1940; when she moved to Ravenna, Ohio, to start working as a secretary, the silver wasn't actually available.

She put part of her meager salary every week toward buying coupons that would, when the war was over, entitle her to a certain number of pieces of silver cutlery. I don't know how long it took her, but sometime between Peace and her marrying my father in 1957, she had amassed a complete service for 12.

That leap of faith has always impressed me -- both that she was sure enough that America would prevail that she'd invest in little coupons that might end up being irredeemable, and that she would someday have a husband to make it worth her while. From what little I know of my mother, the silver was no good without the man.

I inherited half the silver, so I have service for 6. I'll have to see if I can pick up two more place settings.

Who am I kidding? We don't have eight chairs.

[The Scrivener]

I know of one type you didn't list... a beverage spoon for tea that's part spoon, part straw (all metal, the handle is a straw that extends fully underneath the spoon part.) You stir your tea with the spoon and then sip it through the straw... but I think, given the difficulty of cleaning such straw-like things, it'd be preferable to just use a separate disposable straw, or have a spoon like this with brackets for clasping a straw that you press into place and then toss after use. Or just drink your tea without a straw at all, the sensible and least-fussy way to go.

My Mom has an ice-cream scoop that's, I believe, aluminum encasing Freon (which makes it non-stick) and which supposedly was enshrined in the Museum of Modern Art for its state-of-the-art design. Here's a similar one, but it's very expensive... knowing my mother, I'm sure she didn't pay anywhere near that for hers decades ago. But if you want to serve ice cream like a pro, that's the type of scoop you need.

[Emily Litella]

Fishing spoons are real. The concaveness of it makes it wiggle back and forth when it reeling it in or trawling it through water. I've used them but I never had much luck with them.

I think you're missing souviner spoons, the collectible kind, just search for some on eBay and you'll see what I mean. edit: I see them in the museum, yup, they're there.

[Missy2U]

I know of one type you didn't list... a beverage spoon for tea that's part spoon, part straw (all metal, the handle is a straw that extends fully underneath the spoon part.) You stir your tea with the spoon and then sip it through the straw... but I think, given the difficulty of cleaning such straw-like things, it'd be preferable to just use a separate disposable straw, or have a spoon like this with brackets for clasping a straw that you press into place and then toss after use. Or just drink your tea without a straw at all, the sensible and least-fussy way to go.

Ooh - kinda like these thingies (http://www.pennineteaandcoffee.co.uk/commercialdisposables/images/plasticospoonstraws.jpg) that you get with Cherry Icees? (http://www.icee.com/) I have never seen them in a non-plastic form. Wait - I take that back - it looks like they have them at Amazon. (http://www.amazon.com/Danesco-Stainless-Steel-Spoon-Straws/dp/B0018C5N74) I think Amazon may have more stuff than Sur LaTable now that I think about it. And these spoons are groovy! I may buy some. Someday.

Sigmagirl, great story! I can lend you a few chairs if you need...I'd go with the additional place settings!! And I love that replacements.com website - I have been looking at all kinds of stuff! And dayum, did we have some ugly dishes when I was a kid! :D

Emily, I think it was Dave Barry who kinda said that the reason fishing lures don't work all that well is because the fish are laughing too hard. I do not fish so I do not know this for a fact, but if a fish DID laugh, I'm sure he'd laugh at fishing spoons! Unless they had built in straws like scrivener talks about. Then those fish wouldn't be laughing! They'd be drinking iced tea.

[Robot Arm]

It is also a superhero battle cry (http://www.southdacola.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/the_tick_spoon-770895.jpg).

[Spoons]

(Yeah, that's what started this. Spoons.)I did not!

:D

[Sigmagirl]

Now, about straws -- for pimped-out straws, you want to talk to the Pope. We went to a "Treasures of the Pope" museum exhibit a couple years back, and among all the chalices and vestments and priceless art, there was the papal drinking straw. No lie.

Picture if you will a drinking straw stuck through a paper plate. Now picture it all made of gold, with enamel and filigree and precious gems. I think it was made by Cellini or something. The deal was, if the Pope has taken communion, and might have some tiny crumbs of the communion wafer on his lips, and then goes to drink from the chalice, the crumbs might accidentally fall into the chalice or even on the ground, and that would be bad. So somebody said, "Let's make a straw with a special shield so the crumbs will fall on the shield, and then we can retrieve them."

I just looked for a picture of it and couldn't find it. I don't think it's in use anymore, but really, no home is complete without one. Replacements is deficient in this area.

[MissMossie]

Would you believe I grew up in a household that had (and used) all of the spoons from teaspoon to bar spoon. I never thought anything of the vast number of spoons we had until this moment. Ice tea spoons were great for mixing Ovaltine.

[Sattua]

Missy--I published a paper on silverware and what's-what and what's it's called on both sides of the pond. If you want it, I'll dig it up and send it to you. Ping me your email address, if you do.

[Sattua]

I know of one type you didn't list... a beverage spoon for tea that's part spoon, part straw (all metal, the handle is a straw that extends fully underneath the spoon part.)

Mint julep spoon. I'm eyeing a set of them on eBay, right now.

[overlyverbose]

I know of one type you didn't list... a beverage spoon for tea that's part spoon, part straw (all metal, the handle is a straw that extends fully underneath the spoon part.) You stir your tea with the spoon and then sip it through the straw... but I think, given the difficulty of cleaning such straw-like things, it'd be preferable to just use a separate disposable straw, or have a spoon like this with brackets for clasping a straw that you press into place and then toss after use. Or just drink your tea without a straw at all, the sensible and least-fussy way to go.

I believe those types of straws are primarily used for mint juleps and other drinks that involve crushed ice. You can use the scoopy thing to get the ice from the bottom.

Oops - Sattua beat me to it.

[Sattua]

I am the Spooninator. I know it all, and I'm always first.

Hey. A girl's gotta have a niche.

[Winsling]

The Evolution of Useful Things (http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Useful-Things-Artifacts-Zippers-Came/dp/0679740392) is a neat read for anyone interested in why our silverware looks the way it does.

[Labrador Deceiver]

Soup spoon. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Soup_Spoon.jpg) It's all roundy.


To be more specific, that's a Cream Soup Spoon.

[Missy2U]

Missy--I published a paper on silverware and what's-what and what's it's called on both sides of the pond. If you want it, I'll dig it up and send it to you. Ping me your email address, if you do.

I did just that! Sent my email address to you. THANK YOU!!! How cool is publishing a paper on silverware?? :D

Labrador Deceiver, I did not know this. I was unaware of different types of soup spoons. Now I must go back to google and find out even more!

What an afternoon this is turning into! More and more spoonage!

[Sattua]

Oval soup spoon (called a serving spoon, in America)
Cream soup spoon
Gumbo spoon
Bouillon spoon

(ordered largest to smallest)

What Americans call a tablespoon is the European dessert spoon. We agree on the teaspoon. Even teenier is the five o'clock spoon, and teenier yet, the coffee or demitasse spoon.

[gotpasswords]

I know of one type you didn't list... a beverage spoon for tea that's part spoon, part straw (all metal, the handle is a straw that extends fully underneath the spoon part.) You stir your tea with the spoon and then sip it through the straw...
My mother has a set of those in silver. IIRC, the straw is about as big around as a coffee stir-stick, so it's a genteel sipping straw, rather than a large-bore Big Gulp straw.

And nobody's mentioned getting into bed and spooining yet?

[Celyn]

Because it's more fun to get into bed to fork?


And nobody has mentioned playing music with spoons yet. :)

[Darryl Lict]

Don't forget absinthe spoons (http://www.oxygenee.com/absinthe/spoons1.html)! I'm in the market for one, and there is a mediocre brand of absinthe that comes with one, so the next time I'm at BevMo, I'll have one!

[Missy2U]

Sattua - look at all THESE (http://www.bexfield.co.uk/02/images/02f/d639-9.jpg) nifty spoons!!! Why oh why ARE there so many different kinds of spoons? And cutlery in general? When you think about it, you can do pretty darn good with one knife, a fork and one spoon - why do we need thirty bazillion renditions? And don't EVEN get me started on sporks.

Darryl Lict, what in heaven's name do you do with those? I don' t understand them - what are they supposed to do? (I know NOTHING about absinthe).

[Sattua]

That looks like a set of serving spoons, to me. They proliferated to a ridiculous degree, in the Victorian age. Most of them don't date to before it, and are silly after it. Ah, the Industrial Revolution, how I love thee.

Look up marrow spoons. They're straws like mint julep spoons, too, but they're made to suck the melted marrow out of bones. Very Elizabethan.

[Spoons]

And nobody has mentioned playing music with spoons yet. :)That was how I got my user name.

[Celyn]

Really? Aha! :)

[Darryl Lict]

Darryl Lict, what in heaven's name do you do with those? I don' t understand them - what are they supposed to do? (I know NOTHING about absinthe).
Here you go (http://www.oxygenee.com/absinthe-ritual.html)!

It's a fun ritual, although the way I've seen it done is lighting the sugar cube on fire, which isn't even mentioned in that article. I saw it done that way the first time I had absinthe in Slovakia, and since I like fiery drinks, it's the way I do it. Beware though, the fumes are tremendous, and I've seen even my veteran hard core drinking buddies not be able to keep it down.

[Chicken Fingers]

In the photo of the ice cream spoons there was one with three points. We had small ones, and always called those runcible spoons.

We also have a bunch of Chinese spoons for eating pho and other Asian soups.

[StGermain]

My mother had not only teaspoons, soup spoons, cream soups, iced tea, salt, she also had quite a collection of bonbon spoons. When she died, my mother had 4 completes sets of sterling flatware, plus a mother-of-pearl handled fish set, and nuwerous other specialty items.

StG

[The Scrivener]

I suppose no thread on spoons is complete without a reference to "runcible" spoons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runcible_spoon) -- note the linky in the footnotes to Cecil Adams' article on the subject. :)

[BetsQ]

I was astonished one day when my mother-in-law told me with great happiness about the tomato spoon she'd just purchased. What? Tomatoes need their own spoons?

[Sattua]

Here you go (http://www.oxygenee.com/absinthe-ritual.html)!

It's a fun ritual, although the way I've seen it done is lighting the sugar cube on fire, which isn't even mentioned in that article. I saw it done that way the first time I had absinthe in Slovakia, and since I like fiery drinks, it's the way I do it. Beware though, the fumes are tremendous, and I've seen even my veteran hard core drinking buddies not be able to keep it down.

Eastern European vs. Western European tradition. The East European way is, as you say, to douse the sugar cube in absinthe then light it on fire, so the melted sugar drips into the glass. The Western European way is to pour water over the sugar, thus sweetening and diluting the absinthe.

It's nasty swill either way ;)

[Sigmagirl]

I was astonished one day when my mother-in-law told me with great happiness about the tomato spoon she'd just purchased. What? Tomatoes need their own spoons?

Yes, they have slots or perforations so the juice drips out.

[Sunspace]

You forgot the titanium spork (http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/8ace/). :D