Actually genius: The real reason your wooden spoon has a hole

If you’ve ever rented your first apartment, gone down the viral kitchen haul rabbit hole, or inherited a random set of cooking tools from a parent, chances are you ended up with a strange spoon in your utensil drawer. It looks like a normal wooden or silicone spoon, except for one obvious quirk: there’s a hole right in the middle of it.

Most people think it's broken, shove it to the back of the drawer, and forget about it, but here’s the thing: that hole is not a defect. It’s doing more cooking work than most of the other tools you own

It was basically made for risotto
The spoon with the hole is often called a risotto spoon, and the name tells the whole origin story. Risotto, the creamy Italian rice dish that is now a fixture on the menus of fine American restaurants and on the blogs of cozy weeknight recipes, has a very particular science behind it. The creaminess is not from cream; it’s from starch.


When you cook Arborio rice and stir it continuously, the grains rub against each other and release starch into the liquid. A study on cereal endosperm starch gelatinization, published in Scientific Reports, explains that the process, called starch gelatinization, causes the starch granules to swell, absorb water, and ultimately break down, giving risotto its rich, velvety quality.

The hole in the spoon is designed specifically for that purpose. As the rice moves through it, the grains are gently agitated against each other, releasing just enough starch without breaking them apart, and you get a creamy risotto with grains that are still al dente.

It does so much more than just make risotto
The hole makes it easier to stir thick soups, stews, and sauces. Chili, tomato sauce, or oatmeal, for example, are thick mixtures that offer a lot of resistance when you push a solid spoon through them. The hole lets some of the mixture pass, which reduces the drag and makes everything feel easy.

According to a study published in Human Factors in Healthcare, designing kitchen tools to reduce physical strain during repetitive tasks can directly decrease the likelihood of wrist and hand fatigue over time. That’s a lot for anyone who cooks on a regular basis.

It also saves you from a mess
If you ever stirred a pot full of soup and accidentally spilled it over the edge, this spoon would be your best friend. Less surface area means less displacement when you stir, so your liquid stays in the pot where it belongs.

It’s surprisingly nice to fruits
When you’re making homemade jam or berry compote, a regular spoon can crush softer fruit against the sides of the pan as you stir. The hole gives the fruit somewhere to go, so it slips through instead of getting mashed. What you get is a jam or compote where the fruit still looks like fruit.

Don’t ignore that spoon
The holey spoon is one of those unimpressive kitchen tools that quietly does its job really well. It was designed to work, not to look good, but it solves problems at the stove you didn't know you had.

Take it out of the drawer, and have a go. It will surprise you.