What That Little Hole in Your Pasta Spoon Is Actually For

The big spoon with the teeth and the hole in the middle. Every kitchen has one. Mine came in a set I got as a wedding present, and I've used it several times a week for the better part of twenty years.

I assumed the hole was for draining. Or for hanging it up. Or just to use less plastic.

It is none of those things.

It's a Measuring Tool

The hole in the middle of a pasta spoon is sized to hold roughly one adult serving of dry spaghetti.

You push dry spaghetti up through the hole until it's full, and that bundle is about two ounces — near enough to a standard single portion.

That's it. That's what it's for. A measuring device hiding in plain sight on the end of a spoon you already own.

Why That's Genuinely Useful

Dry spaghetti is the hardest thing in the kitchen to judge by eye. It's long, it's thin, it doesn't sit in a cup, and a handful looks like nothing until it swells to three times the size in the pot.

Which is why nearly everyone cooks too much. I have made a pot for four that could have fed nine, more times than I'd like to count.

One hole, one person. Four people, four hole-fulls. It takes five seconds and it is far more accurate than your hand.

The Honest Caveat

The holes are not standardized. There is no rule saying a pasta spoon hole must be a specific diameter, so they vary between manufacturers — some run closer to a generous portion, some to a modest one.

If you want to know exactly where yours sits, do this once: fill the hole, then weigh what comes out on a kitchen scale. Two ounces, or about 56 grams, is the usual single serving.

Whatever number yours gives you, it'll give you the same number every time after that. Which is the point — consistency matters more than the exact figure.

And it only works for long thin pasta. Penne and shells and rigatoni won't stand up through a hole. Those go by cup.

While We're Talking About That Spoon

The teeth are not decorative either. They grip long strands so you can lift spaghetti out of the water without it sliding straight back off — which is why a slotted spoon is so frustrating with pasta and this thing isn't.

And the reason it's shaped like a shallow bowl is so you can lift pasta with a little of its cooking water. That starchy water is what makes a sauce cling instead of sliding off, and lifting pasta rather than dumping it into a colander is how restaurant kitchens do it.

So the spoon is really three tools: a portion gauge, a grabber, and a way to carry pasta water. Not bad for the cheapest thing in the drawer.

A Few Other Things Hiding in Your Kitchen

Once you notice one of these, you start seeing them everywhere.

• The hole in the handle of a saucepan lid is a steam vent, not a hanging hole.

• The small hole in the handle of a frying pan is sized to hold a wooden spoon so it drips into the pan instead of onto your counter.

• The little notch on a wooden spoon's edge is for resting it against the rim of a pot.

None of these are written down anywhere. They're just quietly designed in, and most of us use the tools for years without noticing.

Try It Tonight

Next time you make spaghetti, measure it through the hole instead of guessing, and then look at how much is left in the box compared to normal.

For me it was about a third less than I'd been cooking. That's a third less food in the bin every week, from a hole I'd been looking at for twenty years.