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?

The small cups and saucers are for espresso or Turkish/Greek coffee. I confess to 2 salt spoons, 1 silver and 1 porcelain.

Dessert spoon. My house is too small for endless sets of things.

Ah yes the small coffee cups, we have some old wedgewood teas cups that are also small too, everything used to be smaller including the plates, maybe that is why people were so much slimmer then

@DukeofEarlGrey

I now want some soup spoons.

I've just bought some.

I've been meaning to for a while but then I like cutlery.

I have cake forks, steak knives, metal and bamboo chop sticks, fish knives and forks.

Depending on my health I do like to have visitors for food and until now I've only had desert spoons so I've not been able to serve soup to my guests (OK I could but I like the table to be set with all cutlery before we sit down).

We use dessert spoons.

@amusedbush

This is a hot topic in our house. I have my own set of smaller-than-normal dessert spoons with plastic handles because I’m autistic and the thought of using a big spoon makes my teeth feel terrible.

A soup spoon is even more horrifying - it’s so deep and round! It would touch so much of my mouth 😭

I feel like this too! I only use a teaspoon for anything spoonworthy.

Dessert spoon for soup here. We don't eat soup frequently enough to waste money and drawer space on soup spoons, and I would never serve soup to guests anyway.

Aren't they a bit of an old fashioned concept now?

@amusedbush

This is a hot topic in our house. I have my own set of smaller-than-normal dessert spoons with plastic handles because I’m autistic and the thought of using a big spoon makes my teeth feel terrible.

A soup spoon is even more horrifying - it’s so deep and round! It would touch so much of my mouth 😭

You are meant to sip gently from the side of the tilted soup spoon against your lips. It doesn't go in your mouth whole.

@Fifthtimelucky

Just thought I'd add to the conversation to ask who else has coffee spoons (which are like teaspoons but smaller)? I have some in the canteen of silver (plated) cutlery I bought about 30 years ago but I don't think I've used that (or them) in at least 20 years.

I have never had one myself, but I remember from my childhood that my grandparents had a salt spoon, which was the same sort of shape as a soup spoon but much much smaller.

My mum has coffee spoons, she has every variety of cutlery mentioned and I suppose it's the only reason I know about all this stuff.

She used to use it all years ago when guests came but now uses bog standard supermarket ware if knife,fork,spoon. Seems daft that she doesn't just get the old wedding present stuff out, it's such a waste having stuff for "best" if it never comes out of the cupboard.

I don't like soup, we always have duck parfait.

I use either a soup spoon or a normal spoon. I had soup spoons in a nice cutlery set I got but it's ancient now so they've seen better days. I do have a fancy set with all the cutlery required for a 3 course meal. Only used if we have guests lol.

A mug.

Aren't they a bit of an old fashioned concept now?

Objects where form and function are linked are as old as life but will always be current.

A good soup spoon just works better for eating soup, and some other tasks.

My favourite 'extra' spoons are long handled teaspoons, great for getting stuff out of tall narrow jars.

Cutlery items are small so it doesn't take much space to have a selection of the right tools for each task.

Live in France where they use what we call table spoons for soup. I have soup spoons at home for me- don't like using table spoons for eating. Also don't like using British type dessert spoons for soup. When we have soup ( frequently!) I use a British soup spoon, husband (French) uses a large dessert spoon. For cereal, pudding etc. I use a dessert spoon, he uses a teaspoon!

Soup spoons. We have every day soup spoons in the drawer and soup spoons in the 'best' canteen of cutlery.

I use a desert spoon as I don't have soup spoons. As said most sets don't come with them these days . I use teaspoons for desert though. Doesn't feel right somehow with a desert spoon.

A soup spoon isn't meant to go completely in your mouth. It's used to tilt the soup into your mouth from the side.

Surely this only works for watery soups though not very thick or chunky ones?

I would use a soup spoon. We got a full cutlery set for our wedding including fish knives, cake forks, splades, large dinner set, small dinner set

I've always used soup spoons but partner prefers desert spoons (to the point that if I bring him a soup spoon he go and will swap it). I guess most people just prefer what they grew up with. If we had guests I would give them soup spoons a) because that's my preference and b) "just in case" they're particular about having the "proper" cutlery. I have my grans old cutlery but it doesn't include things like cake knives/forks, desert forks etc - not sure why because she definitely had those with the original set.

@liveforsummer

I use a desert spoon as I don't have soup spoons. As said most sets don't come with them these days . I use teaspoons for desert though. Doesn't feel right somehow with a desert spoon.

Teaspoons are fine for desserts such as mousse. But if it was something like an apple pie with custard, a dessert spoon and fork would work much better.

Soup spoon pushed from the middle of the soup plate to the outer edge.

I used to have a set of soup spoons, but I don’t like them and can’t really see the point. A dessert spoon does the same job - scoop soup and transfers to mouth. All of you who can’t “imagine” using anything else must be quite snobby. What possible difference does it make what someone uses to eat their soup?

Soup spoons.

Yes. My mum once told me that watching me use cutlery was like watching monkeys discover tools.

My cutlery set has table knives, table forks, dessert knives, dessert forks, soup spoons, dessert spoons, teaspoons and serving spoons.

I always eat soup with a soup spoon and we’ve used the dessert forks for cake etc. but the dessert knives have hardly been used TBH.