The Perfect Spoons? a test.

You may recall that I posted about making the "perfect" cooking spoon.  I was inspired by a post from Robin Wood, who describes the perfect cooking spoon thus:

The prefect cooking spoon is neither rounded for flat across the end, it is a gentle curve and cut at an angle either right of left handed. This allows you to sweep around the base of the pan efficiently. The end should be robust enough to scrape scrambled eggs as they begin to thicken but thin enough to easily cut into food when serving.

Narrow spoons are great for bechamel sauce or other liquids where they won't splash and also for removing the last few beans from the base of a tin. Broader spoons are better for serving. It is just possible to make a spoon that cooks well and also serves well, this is great as again it saves washing 2 spoons.

So, I made two spoons based on his description and picture.  Here they are:

Nice, huh?  The pictures don't really do them justice. 


Now for the real question:  Are they really the perfect cooking spoons?

Task 1:  sweep around the base of the pan efficiently.

This is an easy test to perform.  I used this spoon to stir this pot of soup as it cooked.

It swept around the base of the pan very nicely.  I really like the flat curve of the top of the spoon's head for that.  Very nice.  So, this criterion is met.  (It is also decent for serving the soup, which was delicious.)

Task 2:  scrape scrambled eggs as they begin to thicken.

So, I cooked a scrambled egg with one of the spoons. 

It did an okay job of scraping the egg as it began to thicken.  But it would have been a lot easier to use a spatula.  This spoons are thicker and rounder than spatulas.  Even though the top of this spoon is flatter than most spoons, it is still a spoon.  The second criterion is kind of met.  You can use it to scrape a scrambled egg, but you may be wishing for a spatula instead.

Task 3:  Easily cut food when serving.

For this one, I just cut what I had handy - a quesadilla that I just made. 

It cut it just fine, but again, a spatula would have been handier.  These spoons are plenty strong and sharp for cutting, but it takes some rocking back and forth because of the curve.  So I guess this criterion is met.

The verdict: I really like my "perfect" cooking spoons, but they aren't as all-purpose as they could be.  If they are going to meet all three of Robin Wood's criteria, I need to redesign them a little.  I think I will try to make one that looks exactly like one of them in his picture on his blog.  Then I can test that one.