Published July 1, 2005. From Cook's Illustrated.
Imprecision, especially in baking, can be a recipe for disaster. So which measuring spoons can you rely on?
Even cooks who can't be bothered to pull out a measuring spoon for stovetop recipes know that such cavalier imprecision (read: eyeballing) won't cut it when baking. But which brand is best?
After filling five spoons to level, then carefully weighing the contents, we concluded that every brand was sufficiently accurate. So preferences came down to design. We measure dry ingredients by scooping a heaping spoonful, then sweeping it to level (a method we call "dip and sweep"). Easy enough—unless the shape of the spoon hinders either the dipping or the sweeping. Fat spoons, spoons with short handles, overly bulky spoons, and spoons with raised handles all made this task more difficult. When measuring out liquid ingredients, shallow spoons posed a higher risk of spillage than deep spoons.
Where did we end up? Our winner features an elongated, oval shape that proved optimal for scooping ingredients from narrow jar. In addition, the ends of the handles curl down, putting them level with the spoon's base and thereby allowing a full measure to be set down on the counter with no tipping and no mess. Perfection is in the details.
