Best Wooden Spoons: 6 Tested Picks From $6 to $38 (and Two to Skip)

Gerzsi’s day off: I told Barnaby I didn’t need his tools to make a spoon. I have teeth. Twenty minutes and one birch branch later I had a spoon. It was lumpy, it had my bite marks on it, and it was seven inches long. I used it to stir his stew and my paw got so hot I had to stir with my tail. Barnaby measured my spoon, sighed, and handed me a long teak one. “Twelve inches, minimum,” he said. “I checked.” He always checks.

Gerzsi and friends are made up. The gear and the test results are real.

A wooden spoon looks like the simplest thing in the kitchen. The testers found real differences anyway. Some heads were too narrow to move food around, some edges were too blunt to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of a pan, and some spoons cracked, stained or faded after a few washes.

America’s Test Kitchen tested 13 spoons from about $4 to about $36. They cooked curry, Bolognese and cookie dough with them, had left- and right-handed testers break up Italian sausage, washed them by hand, then ran each one through the dishwasher 10 times and tried to snap the handles. Food & Wine also tested 13 spoons, with sausage, oatmeal and a pressure test on each handle. Every pick here is a long cooking spoon made of wood or bamboo, so the table compares like with like.

Quick picks

The six spoons, side by side

Spoon	About	What the testers found
FAAY 13.5-inch Teak Cooking Spoon · See today’s price	about $11–13	ATK winner, F&W best value. Light, kept its color after 10 dishwasher runs. F&W: not the best at scraping fond.
Jonathan’s Spoons Spootle (cherry) · See today’s price	about $30	ATK co-winner, F&W best overall. Broad, thin edge scrapes well. Shallow bowl is poor for serving.
KitchenAid Universal Bamboo Basting Spoon · See today’s price	about $6	F&W best bamboo. Durable, thin lip. Oval head doesn’t reach into pan corners.
Made In Wooden Spoon (beech) · See today’s price	about $19	F&W best for serving. Broad head, comfortable angled handle. Rougher wood texture.
Le Creuset Revolution Scraping Spoon (beech) · See today’s price	about $38	ATK recommended, F&W best splurge. Sturdy, flat edge for breaking up meat. Narrow head, high price.
OXO Good Grips Large Wooden Spoon (beech) · See today’s price	about $9	ATK recommended. Strong handle for stiff dough. Heavy, a bit scratchy, and the light wood stained.

1. FAAY 13.5-inch Teak Cooking Spoon: the one for most people

America’s Test Kitchen named it one of its two winners, calling it a classic design “our grandmothers would recognize.” It’s 13.5 inches long and weighs 1.8 ounces, so it felt light and easy to steer. It was one of the spoons that kept its color after 10 trips through the dishwasher.

Food & Wine called it the best value. Their testers found it durable, water-resistant and easy to clean, and it broke up sausage well. The one weak spot they noted: it isn’t the best tool for scraping the brown bits off the bottom of a pan.

Good for: a first good spoon, soups, stews and sauces, and a cheap gift. Not for: scraping a pan clean after searing meat.

2. Jonathan’s Spoons Spootle: the best scraper

This cherry-wood spoon is handmade in Pennsylvania. America’s Test Kitchen made it a co-winner, and its broad, thin edge scraped especially well. Food & Wine gave it the highest score of the 13 spoons it tested and called it great for stirring and easy to hold and clean.

The catch, from Food & Wine: the bowl is shallow, so it’s not great for serving oatmeal or anything soupy. Their durability test left the handle slightly rough. At about $30 on store pages we checked, it costs more than twice the FAAY.

Good for: browning meat, scraping fond, risotto and polenta, and a gift that looks handmade because it is. Not for: ladling or serving.

3. KitchenAid Universal Bamboo Basting Spoon: the cheapest good one

Food & Wine named it the best bamboo spoon. For about $6 it was durable and one of the top performers, and its thin lip worked well for breaking up sausage.

The oval head limits what it can do, and it doesn’t scrape well into the corners of a pan. Only one of our two sources tested it, so weigh that.

Good for: tight budgets, a second spoon for the crock, and dorm kitchens. Not for: square pans and serious scraping.

4. Made In Wooden Spoon: the best for serving

Food & Wine called this 13-inch beech spoon the best for serving. Its broad head stirred well, the angled handle was comfortable, and it performed well overall.

The downside they found was a rougher wood texture than the other spoons. America’s Test Kitchen didn’t test it.

Good for: stirring and serving from the same pot. Not for: anyone who wants a glass-smooth finish.

5. Le Creuset Revolution Scraping Spoon: the splurge

Both test teams liked this beech spoon without loving it. America’s Test Kitchen recommended it as sturdy, with a flat edge that’s good for breaking up ground meat, but found the head narrow. Food & Wine called it the best splurge: comfortable and almost unmarked after the durability test, though not the testers’ favorite.

Le Creuset lists it at $38, which is the most on this list for a spoon the testers ranked below the FAAY.

Good for: Le Creuset fans and a gift next to a Dutch oven. Not for: value hunters.

6. OXO Good Grips Large Wooden Spoon: sturdy for dough

America’s Test Kitchen recommended this 12-inch beech spoon for its strong handle, which is handy when you stir stiff cookie dough. It was also heavy and a little scratchy, and its light wood stained.

At about $9 when ATK tested it, it’s a fair buy if you bake more than you braise.

Good for: cookie dough and thick batters. Not for: anyone who hates stained spoons.

Skip these

America’s Test Kitchen did not recommend two spoons. The Eddington 50002 Italian Olive Wood spoon had a blunt, half-inch-thick edge, and its bowl cracked badly. The Earlywood Large Flat Sauté was good for scraping but doesn’t scoop, and it faded in the dishwasher. They also had reservations about the IMUSA 3-piece set, with a tiny head and a skinny handle that tired the hand.

Chef Tamás’s note

Tamás hasn’t picked a favorite wooden spoon for us, so this guide leans on the test kitchens. What we know from his kitchens: every shift he reaches for tongs, a small offset spatula and tweezers, and he makes stock from just about everything in whatever big pot is free. We’ll add his spoon pick here when he gives us one.

Wooden spoon FAQ

Can wooden spoons go in the dishwasher?

America’s Test Kitchen ran every spoon through the dishwasher 10 times. The FAAY kept its color, but the Earlywood faded, and ATK still recommends washing wooden spoons by hand. Food & Wine said the same for olive wood. If you want a dishwasher-safe spoon, Food & Wine picked the Epicurean Chef Series, which is made of Richlite, a paper composite, not wood.

How long should a wooden spoon be?

At least 12 inches. America’s Test Kitchen found longer spoons with simple, tapered handles were more comfortable, and a 10-inch spoon left testers with hot hands.

Which wood is best: teak, beech, cherry, olive or bamboo?

The winners were teak (FAAY) and cherry (Spootle). Light beech stained in the ATK test. Two olive wood spoons had problems: ATK’s Eddington cracked, and Food & Wine’s Sabatier showed wood damage. Bamboo did well in the KitchenAid, but a glued bamboo set split along the glue lines in ATK’s test.

What matters most in a wooden spoon?

America’s Test Kitchen said head shape mattered most. A broad head with a thin edge moves food and scrapes the pan; a narrow or blunt head makes you work harder.

Is a wooden spoon a good gift?

Yes, and an easy one. The FAAY costs about $11 to $13 and the KitchenAid about $6, so both fit a stocking. The handmade Spootle, at about $30, looks like more of a present.

The bottom line

Buy the FAAY teak spoon. Both test kitchens liked it, it’s long enough to keep your hand off the heat, and it costs about as much as lunch. Add the Spootle if you sear a lot of meat and want a better scraper, or grab the $6 KitchenAid bamboo spoon as a spare.

Twelve inches, minimum. Badger-checked.

Sources

• America’s Test Kitchen: The Best Wooden Spoons, by Lisa McManus (May 14, 2020)
• Food & Wine: The 7 Best Wooden Spoons of 2023, by Christa Glennie (February 6, 2023, via Yahoo Life)
• Le Creuset: Revolution Wood Scraping Spoon (price and size, checked November 2026)

Both test kitchens cooked with and washed every spoon they rated. Their tests are a few years old, so we checked current prices where a store page was available; the rest are the prices the testers listed. Prices change often.