All About Spoon Rests

What is a spoon rest?

A spoon rest is a small, spoon shaped dish that is designed to rest large spoons in while cooking. A spoon rest generally sits in the middle of a stovetop, or next to the cooking range. You've probably seen one on a friend's stove, or maybe you have one on your stove. The idea behind a spoon rest is that it would catch any food or sauce that might drip off of your cooking spoon while it's not in the pot stirring. A spoon rest also provides a place to rest the cooking spoon between stirs.

Standing spoon rests vs. traditional spoon rests

Traditionally, spoon rests have been designed to lie flat on the stovetop. Such a spoon rest looks like a very flat spoon with a squat handle, and lays spoon side up to create a nice dish. The spoon rest can hold any sized spoon, from soup ladles, to flatware, and the squat handle is designed to catch any sauces or liquids that may have accumulated on spoon handles.

Standing spoon rests, however, are designed a little differently. These spoon rests stand upright on a stove or counter. A wire at the top of the spoon rests provides a place to hang a soon handle on, or rest a handle against. At the bottom of the spoon rest is a small bowl to hold the bottom of the spoon. These spoon rests are nice because all the liquid or sauce on a spoon drips downward and collects in the bowl. However, they work best for large spoons, such as soup ladles. They are also much larger than traditional spoon rests, so they would take up more room in your kitchen. A standing spoon rest is ideal for someone who cooks a lot of soups, or for professional chefs.

Why use a spoon rest?

In addition to being very practical, spoon rests can also add decorative flare to a kitchen. You can purchase spoon rests in a variety of designs, and most people leave them out while not cooking as decorations. Antique and collectable spoon rests are also available, and some collectors like to display particularly unique spoon rests on walls or in display cases.

You can also use spoon rests in some creative ways. A spoon rest on a dresser makes a great necklace or earring holder. Placed next to a sewing machine, a spoon rest makes a great catchall for pushpins, safety pins, or snips of thread. You could grab your oven spoon rest for quick trip outside to an herb garden before supper. Just cut a few quick herbs and use the spoon rest to carry them inside.

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