A lot of people think it’s just there so the pan can hang nicely on a hook. In fact, designers quietly added a second, very useful feature that can make cooking cleaner, faster, and a little less messy.
Your pan handle’s hole has another purpose.
Look at the frying pan or saucepan you have. Most of the time, there is a round or oval hole at the end of the handle. If we use it at all, it’s usually as a place to hang something on a rail or wall hook.
That does make it easier to store things, especially in a small kitchen. But that wasn’t the only thing that went into it.
You can “park” your wooden spoon or spatula above the pan while you cook by putting it in the hole.
Put the handle of a spoon, spatula, or ladle through that hole, and your utensil will have a place to rest. The spoon’s head stays above the pan instead of dripping onto your worktop or hob.
How to use the hole in the pan handle as a spoon holder
This simple trick is surprisingly useful when you’re busy getting ready for a meal.
- Use a wooden spoon or a spatula that won’t melt to stir your soup, sauce, or stir-fry as usual.
- You should turn off the heat or lower it to a safe level so you can move around more easily.
- Put the handle of the spoon through the hole at the end of the handle of the pan.
- To keep the head of the spoon above the pan, not the worktop, tilt it.
- The spoon will rest at an angle, with the pan handle holding it up. Any drips will fall straight back into the food.
Your spoon just sits above the pan, waiting for the next stir, instead of looking for a clean saucer or making the counter dirty.
Why this small trick changes how you cook
Cleaning the worktop more often
The work surface around the hob is one of the first places to get messy during a weekday dinner rush. Spoons sitting in pools of sauce, spatulas leaving greasy marks, and a stack of plates being used as makeshift rests.
Putting the spoon in the hole in the pan handle keeps all that mess in one place. The sauce falls back into the pan instead of spreading out over the hob. That means you won’t have to wipe as much, you won’t have to wash as many cloths, and the kitchen will still look normal when the food is on the table.
Lowering the chances of cross-contamination
When it comes to cleanliness, where you put your utensils is important. If you’re cooking a lot of things at once, raw meat juices, crumbs, and bacteria that you can’t see can stay on your worktops.
Putting the utensil over the pan lowers the chances of germs getting from the counter to your food.
This is especially important when you’re handling raw chicken, ground meat, or fish. There might be bits of something you chopped up earlier on a spoon that was left on the counter. You could be taking an unnecessary risk if that spoon goes back into a sauce that won’t boil hard again.
You can always find your spoon.
You won’t lose your utensils in the middle of a recipe anymore. The spoon is always where your hand expects it to be because it is attached to the pan handle.
You don’t waste time looking through a mess of bowls and packets when a sauce looks like it’s going to catch. You just take the spoon, stir it, and go on.
What tools really fit in the handle hole?
Not every spatula or spoon will fit comfortably in the handle opening. Some are too thick, and some are too slippery. Some types work better than others:
Wooden spoons are light, easy to hold, and don’t get hot.
Wooden spatulas are great for stews, risottos, and anything else that needs to be scraped often.
Silicone spatulas and spoons are fine as long as the handle isn’t too heavy or wide.
If the pan is empty or very light, heavy stainless steel ladles or very thick handles could make it unbalanced. If the handle starts to tip, don’t use that tool anymore.
A quick look before you try it
Most of the time, this small move won’t hurt the pan or the utensils, but taking a few extra steps will keep them both in good shape.
Check out why it matters.
- How big the hole isIf it’s too tight, the tool might get stuck or twist without warning.
- How heavy the utensil isIf you use heavy tools, the pan can tilt or slide on the hob.
- Pan coating: If metal utensils hit non-stick surfaces, they can scratch them.
- StabilityIf a spoon isn’t balanced right, it could fall into the pan or onto the floor.
- Wooden or silicone handles work best with non-stick pans because they don’t scratch the coating as easily if they touch the rim.
Handles made of metal can bang against the pan and leave marks.
Other things about pans that you might not have seen
The hole for the spoon rest isn’t the only hidden design element in your cookware. When you know what to look for, manufacturers quietly add little things that make cooking every day easier.
The curved edges of the pan make it easier to pour sauces or soups without spilling.
Steam vents in lids keep things from rattling, lower the risk of boiling over, and let extra moisture out so that the food is crispier.
Certain pans have heat-indicator spots or color changes that show when the base has reached the right temperature for searing.
You can use detachable handles to turn a frying pan into an oven dish, and they also save space in small cabinets.
When you start to notice these little things, cookware stops being just metal and becomes a collection of small engineering tricks for busy home cooks.
When the spoon-through-the-handle trick really works
In some very common cooking situations, this little tool really shines.
Scenario 1: Night of Tomato Sauce
If you leave your tomato and basil sauce alone for too long, it will splatter. You want it to be thick, not burnt. You can keep the spoon handy while you grate cheese, rinse salad, or drain pasta by using the handle hole.
You reach for the spoon that is resting above the pan every minute or so, stir, and then put it back where it belongs. No red stains on the stove and no need to look for the spoon you last used.
Scenario 2: three pans and one hob
Picture a small apartment with a two-burner stove. There is a small saucepan of vegetables and two pans, one for rice and one for curry. There isn’t much room. Plates for resting spoons just don’t fit.
Using the handle holes as small spoon rests keeps the utensils off the small counter space and makes the whole thing feel less crowded.
Each pan has its own tool hanging from it, making it its own station. That kind of order makes it easier to deal with timing issues.
Some words that can help you pick pans
If you notice something like the handle hole, you might start to look more closely at the rest of your cookware. It’s important to know
what some of the words on the box mean:
Non-stick coating: a layer on the surface that keeps food from sticking; it usually needs soft utensils like wood or silicone.
Encapsulated base: a thick base with metal layers that help spread heat more evenly.
Riveted handle: a handle that is held in place with metal rivets. This type of handle is usually stronger than one that is just screwed on.
Induction compatible: The pan has magnetic metal in it, so it works on induction hobs.
If you know these things, you can choose pans with handles, weight, and balance that make the spoon-rest trick safe and easy to use.
Making small design choices part of your daily life
There are a lot of little things in modern kitchens that help without being obvious, like lines on measuring cups and ridges on oven trays. The hole in the pan handle fits perfectly into this category: it looks simple and is often ignored, but it works well when used as intended.
Try it with a wooden spoon the next time you cook. Notice how much less you have to clean up afterward and how much more in control the whole thing feels. Once you get used to it, you might never leave spoons in saucers again.
