Spoons are primarily used to transfer edibles from vessel to mouth, usually at a dining table. A spoon's style is usually named after a food or drink with which they are most often used, the material with which they are composed, or a feature of their appearance or structure. •
Bouillon spoon — round-bowled, somewhat smaller than a soup spoon •
Caviar spoon — usually made of
mother of pearl,
gold,
animal horn, or wood, but not
silver, which would affect the taste •
Chinese spoon — a type of soup spoon with a short, thick handle extending directly from a deep, flat bowl. •
Coffee spoon — small, for use with after-dinner
coffee cups (coffee spoons are usually smaller than
teaspoons) • Cutty — short, chiefly Scot and Irish •
Demitasse spoon — diminutive, smaller than a coffee spoon; for traditional
coffee drinks in specialty cups and for spooning
cappuccino froth •
Dessert spoon — intermediate in size between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, used in eating
dessert and sometimes soup or cereals •
Egg spoon — for eating soft
boiled eggs; with a shorter handle and bowl than a teaspoon, and a bowl broadly round across the end, rather than pointed, intended to enable the user to scrape soft-boiled egg out of the shell •
Grapefruit spoon or orange spoon — tapers to a sharp point or teeth, used for
citrus fruits and
melons •
Gumbo or
Chowder spoon — larger round bowl, approximately • Horn spoon — a spoon made of
horn, used chiefly interjectionally in the phrase
By the Great Horn Spoon!, as in the children's novel of that title by
Sid Fleischman. Horn spoons are still used for eating boiled eggs because they do not tarnish (like silver) from the sulfurous yolk. Horn (or mother of pearl) are used for caviar, since a silver spoon would unpleasantly affect the taste of the delicate roe. •
Iced tea spoon or parfait spoon — with a bowl similar in size and shape to that of a teaspoon, and with a long slim handle, used in stirring tall drinks, or eating
parfait, sundaes, sorbets, or similar foods served in tall glasses •
Korean spoon — long-handled, often with shallow point at end of bowl • Marrow spoon or marrow scoop — 18th century, often of silver, with a long thin bowl suitable for removing
marrow from a bone • Melon spoon — often silver, used for eating melon •
Plastic spoon — cheap, disposable, flexible, stain resistant, sometimes biodegradable; black, white, colored, or clear; smooth, non-porous surface; varied types and uses • Rattail spoon — developed in the later 17th century; with a thin pointed tongue on the bottom of the bowl to reinforce the joint of bowl and handle •
Salt spoon — miniature, used with an open
salt cellar for individual service •
Saucier spoon — slightly flattened spoon with a notch in one side; used for drizzling sauces over fish or other delicate foods. •
Soup spoon — with a large or rounded bowl for eating soup. • Cream-soup spoon — round-bowled, slightly shorter than a standard soup spoon •
Teaspoon — small, suitable for stirring and sipping
tea or
coffee; standard capacity one third of a tablespoon; a
cooking measure of volume •
Tablespoon — sometimes used for ice cream and soup; standard capacity of three teaspoons; a
cooking measure of volume • M1926 spoon — Army issue with
mess kits from 1941 to 2002, volume of two tablespoons • Seal-top spoon — silver, end of handle in the form of a circular
seal; popular in England in the later 16th and 17th centuries •
Spork,
sporf,
spife,
splayd, etc. — differing combinations of a spoon with a fork or knife • Stroon — a straw with a spoon on the end for eating
slushies, etc. ==Cooking and serving utensils==