What do you use to eat soup?

[Stilton1]

Just wondering...

I've grown up with a full(-ish) set of cutlery - table knives, table forks, dessert spoons, soup spoons, dessert knives, dessert forks, teaspoons. And I use them all, because they've always been there.

Many sets of cutlery only contain table knives, table forks, dessert spoons and teaspoons, so I'm assuming this is now the norm and I'm just a bit behind the times. I think that perhaps round soup spoons are a British thing and not used in other European countries?

May I please ask, which items of cutlery do you have in your home? Of those, which do you use? And, finally, what do you use to eat soup when you have company?

My dessert spoons are rounded, so they double as soup spoons. I’m not keen on large deep soup spoons that mean I have to tip the soup into my mouth though.

Soup? As in runny liquid food? I use a knife and fork of course

I like to eat clear soup or thin soup with a proper soup spoon. But I don't often make clear or thin soup because I don't tend to make soup as a starter. When I make soup it's generally a one-pot meal with bread and cheese. And round soup spoons are not convenient for lumps of veg etc. For them the more pointed dessert spoon works better. So my beautiful, round soup spoons languish unused in the drawer.

To me a tablespoon is a larger spoon used to serve food. A dessert spoon is the oval one you use for cereal and dessert of course!

I prefer a soup spoon for soup. I had to buy some separately that vaguely matched the rest of my cutlery though, as sets in my price range didn't include such fancy extras

[quote amusedbush]@Chunkymenrock

That has given me the shivers 🤢

TIP the soup into my mouth? Like emptying a JCB??[/quote]
No, it's more like drinking from them.

Lol. If my mother wasn’t such a Luddite I’d swear she started this thread given how she lived to lord it over the poor staff in John Lewis’ cafe who ‘didn’t know what a soup spoon was’. Bottom line is. It doesn’t matter. Soup or dessert spoon it does the same job…

Chopsticks and a smaller, deeper bowl than standard in dinner sets.

Just noticed that Sainsbury's are selling cutlery sets with soup spoons in. Never did that before - being a mere Pov, all our cutlery came from a £4.99, reduced from £14.99 set in about 2005.

Guess that's going to be the big push for marketing and fashion this year - both the flat and tableware, plus probably lots of recipes in the TV cook/chef shows and expensive soup makers rather than a saucepan and stick blender.

I used soup spoons as a child as both my grandmothers had them. As an adult I lived in various houseshares which did not have soup spoons so used dessert spoons. When I bought my own cutlery it didn't occur to me to look for one with soup spoons as was so used to using dessert spoons. I now want soup spoons. I also want a cake fork with the little knife-like bit on the other side to usual so I can actually use it properly for once (am left handed)

@Just10moreminutesplease

I don’t know anyone under the age of 70 that owns soup spoons. I’ve always just used a dessert spoon…

I’m feeling a bit uncultured now though .

I'm 50s. I fell in love with soup spoons when I was trying to furnish my first flat without any money to do so. I bought half-a dozen large soup spoons at a car boot. I used them for about 15y, until I got a dishwasher. Had to put them away then, because it turned out that they were antique EPNS! Still have them in the loft somewhere. So pleasing to use.

Definitely a soup spoon. It would feel weird using a normal dessert spoon. When I bought cutlery a few years ago the normal set was knives, forks, dessert spoons and teaspoons - but I also got some matching soup spoons and serving spoons, which I wouldn't want to be without.

Dessert spoons are smaller than tablespoons. Tablespoons as more like serving spoons and I wouldn't want or eat with one. If I am cooking and the recipe asks for a tablespoon of something I use a special measure to make sure it is the right amount. If I remember rightly, a tablespoon is 15ml, a dessert spoon is 10ml and a teaspoon is 5ml.

www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-dome-cutlery-set-44-piece-6-place-settings/p4107058

This is the range I have. Nice quality and satisfyingly heavy without being too expensive. I don't have the smaller knives and forks, nor do I have the tablespoons (the big ones on the right for people asking the difference and the dessert spoon is the one bigger than the teaspoon but the same shape. The soup spoon is round and like a little bowl) as I already had other ones.

Always a soup spoon, and I get cross if DP puts out pudding spoons for soup (they do live in the same section though).

@Spudbitch

Soup? As in runny liquid food? I use a knife and fork of course

I hope you carefully push the soup onto the back of your fork. You wouldn't want to look like a savage, now.

The round soup spoon was a Vicorian invention. Prior to that people ate soup with a tablespoon. No round soup spoons made before 1900. We had some quite grand, aristocratic neighbours and they always used their ancient cutlery and the soup spoons were indeed like deep tablespoons.

I use a fork..

I have soup spoons, can’t stand them.

Actually I use whatever’s first to hand and clean, I’ve used a teaspoon before now.

I have soup spoons

But rarely soup

I’d use them if I did though, they are pleasingly ladle like

A table spoon is a large spoon used to serve food. (15ml)
A dessert spoon is the 'eating spoon' .(10ml)
A tea spoon is for stirring (and eating small things). (5ml)
Soup spoons are rounded.

I think I might buy some soup spoons now

I’d use them if I did though, they are pleasingly ladle like

I also use soup spoons for serving things where a tablespoon seems too large but a teaspoon wouldn't be big enough. More scoopy than a dessert spoon.

A knife and fork 🤷‍♀️

We have soup spoons but I prefer a dessert spoon.

DH and DD use soup spoons.

My actual preference is to drink soup from a mug.

I prefer to use a soup spoon, however if dh is cooking/serving I'm likely to get a dessert spoon. Equally I'm just as likely to be given a soup spoon for dessert. .

I have cake forks and even a tiny fruit knife in a small leather case.

This is the set I got. Well I actually bought 3 of them to always have plenty as DH and DC are buggers for losing things. I'm already down 2 forks and 3 teaspoons. 🙄

There's 4 of each main item but 8 teaspoons in each.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07V2B5TV1/ref=cmswwrcppapiglccfabcQFBDCGY69C33ZJTYBSMN

I have never known anyone who owns soup spoons. I’ve spent my life in England to non-British parents and have only ever seen them in restaurants. My family rarely eat soup incidentally.