Wooden spoons are one of the oldest and most basic cooking kitchen utensils. The benefits of cooking with spoons made from wood—as opposed to metal or plastic—are many: They won’t scratch pots and pans and are safe to use with nonstick surfaces, they won’t me and a must-have in every kitchen. They won’t melt in boiling soups, they stay cool to the touch even when left in a hot pot, and they’re sturdy enough to stir stiff batters and scrape cooked-on food from the bottom of a pot.