Why You Should Use a Wooden Spoon to Taste Your Food
I don’t know about you, but when I’m cooking and things are chaotic in the kitchen, I usually grab whatever utensil is within arm’s reach (spatula, fork, metal spoon) to taste my creation while it’s bubbling on the stove. Until now, I never thought twice about it. Tasting your food is a crucial part of the cooking process — it helps determine how much salt or pepper or other seasoning you need to add to your dish. I just found out that a metal spoon can potentially burn your food because it retains heat. Not only does this change the flavor of whatever you’re eating, but it could potentially burn the inside of your mouth, too.
The solution is pretty simple: Make sure you have a wooden spoon on hand when you’re cooking. Lifehacker points out that a wooden spoon doesn’t retain heat like its metal counterpart, so the spoon itself stays cool even if the food is hot.
This spoon revelation doesn’t mean you should become careless when you’re cooking — boiling-hot pasta sauce can still scald your tongue and the roof of your mouth, regardless. Wait at least a minute before popping the entire spoon into your mouth to avoid any unnecessary pain.
A silicone spatula would also work in this situation, so if that’s all you have feel free to use it (though you really should invest in a wooden spoon; it’s a reliable tool for cooking- and baking-related tasks). The only problem is that it’s (obviously) much harder to grab a mouthful of whatever it is you’re cooking on the spatula’s flat surface.
It might be tricky to break the habit of sampling your meals midway through the cooking process with a metal spoon, but for your own safety you should try. If you repeatedly burn your tongue taste-testing with a metal spoon, soon enough you might find out that you can’t taste anything at all. And if you want to become the best home cook on your block, then you had better be able to keep your taste buds intact.