The Three Spatulas Every Kitchen Needs

Though I would like to stock my kitchen utensil crock with every Star Wars-themed spatula in existence, I just don’t have the room — or the need — for that many turners. Really, the average home cook only needs three spatulas.

Photo by Susannah Chen.

The Fish Spatula

As we’ve discussed before, the fish spatula can be used for so much more than turning fish. It’s long and sturdy, but super thin, making it perfect for flipping and transferring all sorts of delicate foods. (Honestly, if you can flip a whole fish filet without effing it up, what can’t you flip?) It’s also a marvellous scraper, and its slots make it perfect for fishing fried foods out of oil. (And, if you tend to do a lot of cooking in nonstick, OXO makes a silicone-coated one that, according to Epicurious, is heat resistant up to 315C.)

The Rubber or Silicone Spatula

Rubber or silicone spatulas are terrible flippers, but they excel at scooting around scrambled eggs and folding fluffy egg whites. They’re also ace bowl scrapers, perfect for making sure you get every bit of brownie batter into the pan. A lot of people prefer spatulas made from a single material throughout — I’m partial to slippery silicone — meaning the head won’t pop off the body at an inopportune time, but I’ve never had an issue with this wooden-handled number from Le Crueset. (I also love this tiny guy from Tovolo, which has a nylon spreader on the other end.)

The Wooden Turner

You could probably get by with just the above two, but I like to have a multi-purpose wooden turner around, just in case my fish spatula or silicone spatula are predisposed (ahem, dirty). This thing can scrape, stir, fold and flip and, as long as you take decent care of it, it will never die.

Those three will get all the jobs done, leaving room in your utensil crock for your impressive wooden spoon collection or, if you must, this Death Star spatula.