Wooden spoons, my special kind of spoons. I don't know about you, but cooking is easier with wooden spoons.

The word spoon derives from an ancient word meaning a chip of wood or horn carved from a larger piece.

Wooden spoons were easy to carve and thus inexpensive, making them common throughout history.

Today, wooden spoons in western cultures are generally medium to large spoons used for mixing ingredients for cooking or baking. They may be flat or have a small dip in the middle.

Before the invention of electric mixers, wooden spoons were often used to cream together butter and sugar in recipes such as shortbread or Victoria sponge cake.

They are still used for stirring many different kinds of food and beverages, especially soups and casseroles during preparation, although they tend to absorb strong smells such as onion and garlic. Wooden spoons are generally preferred for cooking because of their versatility. Some cooks prefer to use wooden spoons when preparing risotto because they do not transfer heat as much as metal spoons. Unlike metal spoons, they can also be safely used without scratching the bottom of the saucepan. This is useful when making dishes such as scrambled eggs.

Well said, now go get your wooden spoons and start cooking. I mostly use wooden spoons when cooking.

 

Wooden spoons are also used to pevent steam from boiling over, by placing horizontally on top of a boiling pot.

This does work up to a point. The bubbles formed by boiling water are filled with steam, so if anything colder than the steam (ie <100°C) touches a bubble the steam will immediately condense and the bubble will collapse.

Therefore provided the surface of your spoon is cold, it will help to prevent boiling over. If it's a long boil and the wooden spoon heats up to 100°C it will no longer work. This is why a wooden spoon is recommended: metal would heat up too quickly.