Yes, they are great for stirring things that need to be gently heating while constantly stirred, because they really move the stuff on the very bottom around. I use spatulas for stirring pots more often than i use them for removing stuff from jars.
But there’s still context. Is the vessel on the stove a frying pan or a pot?
To be fair, I’m not sure any Brit under 40 would use the term ‘fish slice’. One of the many things that has fallen out of linguistic fashion. It’s all spatula to this Brit, even the wooden variety which I haven’t seen mentioned.
That’s what I use my wooden spatula for.
You’re walking through a mall, and some people conducting a survey ask you which of the items on their table is a spatula.
Every part of that seems highly unlikely to me, but I suppose it is a remote possibility.
Interesting. Asked my wife and kids. All together for the youngest’s college graduation. My wife and I , me Chicago area and her NJ origin, only think of the rubber sort. And no word for the metal flipper. Kids all think the flipper.
This. For instance, when making scrambled eggs. I have a good non-stick pan where if I make my usual sunny-side-up eggs it hardly matters what sort of spatula I use because the eggs literally slide right off and might just need to be guided a little onto the plate. But for scrambled, you need something to stir them around, and initially the yolk parts tend to stick a bit, so a rubber spatula is ideal.
So, you call it “the metal flipper”? Or, using no words, describe it thru interpretive dance?
I never woulda guessed this would be one of my most successful threads! (Maybe I overthink this internet thing!) But, not wanting it to end, how many spatulas do you have in your kitchen, and of what type? And I’m talking in your kitchen, used for cooking. Not old ones repurposed in your workshop, palette knives, etc.
I just did a quick count, and readily found 10.
4 are of the metal sort for pancakes/burgers, 1 of which is exclusively for the grill
We just grab it when we use it. Never asked for it to be passed or given to me. Or been asked.
This just came up in conversation with my younger sister the other day. I think we were watching a baking show on TV so that’s why it came up.
But when we were little kids, the spatula was only ever called the “child cheater.” I knew what it meant, but it also had a generic name sense to me. Was this unique to our family???
Also, Graham Whosits (the Galloping Gourmet) had a wooden one he called a spurtle.
An old metal flipper was, at one time in our house, repurposed for de-turding the kitty litter box.
Never heard of it before myself, but it’s not unique to your family. This kind of spatula works so well at scraping cake batter from a bowl that a child is cheated out of a chance to lick the spoon.
O.k. not unique, but maybe old-fashioned?
For the longest time when I was a kid I called it a ‘Spatch-a-ler’ because my father had a NYC accent and pronounced it “spatulA” in keeping with his dropping of his Rs at the end of words, and so I thought I was compensating by calling it its “real” name.
My kitchen utensil crock has 3 metal flippers, 2 silicone flippers and 2 rubber scrapers. They are all “spatulas” to me.
I flip burgers with a spatula.
Cakes are rarely baked in my kitchen. I’d have to search for the plastic spatula used to bake and spread frosting.
I use a table knife to scrape the inside of jars.
Ok, here’s something more realistic. You are an FBI agent who has found a time bomb in the back of a van parked outside a Williams Sonoma. The big red LED on the bomb is ticking down, you have only a couple of minutes. You are on the phone to the bomb disposal expert trying to defuse it. The bomb expert tells you that the only way to safely remove the detonator is to use a spatula. What implement do you pick up?
The metal one conducts electricity. I’ll use the plastic/silicone one. Unless the metal one shorts out the detonator.
Hmm, i have a more of spatulas in the utensil drawer.
2 frosting spreaders
4 soft scrapers
2 “spoonulas”, which are good for stirring and stuff
2 small (narrow) flippers with metal blades
1 plastic flipper which has seen better days
4 metal flippers
We pruned a while ago, but then cleared out stuff from my mom’s apartment. Time to prune again. Probably 1 narrow flipper and 2 wide metal flippers is plenty. I think i use all the others.
We have:
Four metal flipper types (square, rounded, long and slotted for turning delicate items, and thin and extremely flexible)
Three silicone flipper types for the nonstick pans (square, rounded, and long and slotted)
Seven (!) flexible silicone scraper types in various sizes and shapes
Three metal spreader types (one short and stubby, one long and thin, and one long and thin with an offset handle)
I also own four wooden spoons, but three of them are spatulate rather than rounded with a bowl.
I forgot about those! I have at least 4 wooden spatula-like tools as well.