Wooden spoon

A wooden spoon is a cooking tool made of plastic (today) or wood, mostly maple, used to stir soups and similar food, mix ingredients and to prevent lumping and scorching.

Often wooden spoons are relatively flat compared to tea or table spoons. Many have got a nose to fit the shape of the pot and some even have a hole to improve the mixing when stirring fluids.

Production
Wooden spoons are very simple to carve.

History
Wooden spoons were easy to carve and thus inexpensive, making them common throughout history.

The Iron Age Celts (C. 250BC) of Britain used them. This is evidenced by an example of a small ladle discovered during archaeological excavations at the Glastonbury Lake Village. Roman period spoons have been recovered from excavations in the City of London. The Anglo Saxons were great workers of wood, as were the Vikings, and both these groups of settlers to the British Isles produced wooden spoons for domestic uses.