Handle Angle, Length, and Material Are Important
A few other details helped determine our favorites. First, the “offset” angle between head and handle. We uniformly preferred models that had a large, nearly 90-degree angle between head and handle, as they gave us more leverage and kept our hands further from the hot cooking surface than did models with smaller angles.
Handles that were about 5 inches long were big enough to accommodate hands of all sizes and allowed for more control when flipping or lifting. Longer handles made the turners feel poorly balanced, forcing us to position our hands closer to the heads to get better control when flipping or transferring food.
We liked handles made from soft or textured plastics, as they were easier to grip than models with handles made of slicker, harder plastics, especially when they were wet or greasy. We also voted against wood handles; one was unpleasantly rough, and one of these turners had to be hand-washed—we prefer models that can be thrown in the dishwasher after use.
Leave a comment and join the conversation!