All About Tongs

Give yourself a hand

Toss and serve salad greens, grab warm serving plates from the oven, or turn bacon or steaks. Basic kitchen tongs come in handy for a variety of purposes, kind of like an extra set of hands! Other tongs, like ice tongs, salad tongs, and sugar tongs work great for specific tasks.

Basically speaking

Basic kitchen tongs are made for picking up a variety of foods and come in many shapes and styles. Tongs with long handles keep your hands away from heat. Styles with lock and release mechanisms lock tongs closed to set on your spoon rest between uses or for compact storage.

The workhorse

Stainless steel spring loaded tongs are the workhorse of kitchen tongs. You can put them to work for a variety of kitchen duties. They grasp food firmly and pick up almost anything! They work wonderfully for picking up heavy food like corn on the cob and baked potatoes, but will grasp rolls, biscuits and hot dogs gently and easily.

Also great for many kitchen applications are flat nosed tongs. They come in 9-inch or 12-inch sizes and are made of either stainless steel or plastic. The flat nosed style makes it easy to pick up almost any type of food and the one piece construction with no crevices or grooves makes cleaning a breeze.

To get specific

Other tong styles are made for specific purposes like tossing salad, grabbing sugar cubes, or lifting and turning grilled foods. Some popular styles include:

Salad tongs. Every household can use salad tongs to toss and serve lettuce greens. Salad tongs generally feature one spoon shaped side and one fork side. Choose between stainless steel and wooden salad tongs. Beautiful wooden salad tongs with long curved handles are especially nice to use when entertaining guests.

Ice tongs. Ice buckets are usually sold with ice tongs, or you can purchase ice tongs separately. Ice tongs are made with pointed prongs so you can get a secure grip on the ice without it slipping away. Many ice tongs have non-slip easy grip handles.

Wooden tongs. Safely remove hot toast or muffins from the toaster with these small wooden tongs. A magnet insert allows you to store tongs right on your toaster so you'll always know where to find them.

Pasta tongs. Snag slippery pasta strands securely with specially designed pasta tongs. With a classic pasta fork on one side and a rigid wire arm on the other, you can easily drain and clamp pasta in one easy step. A long handle keeps your hands away from steam and boiling water.

Scissor tongs. The scissor design makes these tongs ideal for turning meats on the barbecue and serving heavier foods. The insulated handle provides a cool comfortable grip when serving.

Sugar cube tongs. When serving tea or coffee to guests, serve sugar cubes properly with sugar cube tongs. Sugar cube tongs are available in sterling silver, gold plated or stainless steel styles.

For cooking foods like burgers, fish, and cutlets, make sure to look for specially designed barbecue tongs that grasp foods securely and give greater support when turning foods.

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