Lefse stick in action. Sean Hayford O’Leary / wikimedia / 2007 / CC BY 2.0
A lefse stick is a carved wooden stick used to turn the large flatbreads known as “lefses” while cooking them on a griddle.
Lefse stick construction
It is best described perhaps as looking something like one of those long, broad sticks you would stir paint with, except its side edges are tapered, and it is much thinner, almost the thinness of a reed that you would use in a wind instrument.
The stick will be anywhere from 2 to 4 cm wide (¾ inch to 1 ½ inches). They come in varying lengths, but generally are around 60 cm long (2 feet). You can get them with various parts of them decorated or painted in different colours. The handles are usually decorated a little, to make them look a little more kitchen-worthy than a paint stirring stick from the back of the garage.
Decorated lefse stick handle. Kofferdahl13 / wikimedia / 2016 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Using a lefse stick
On your work surface, you turn a lefse stick to wrap your rolled-out lefse around it. Then you move the stick to your lefse griddle, and unroll the lefse from the stick onto the griddle. To flip the lefse over during cooking, you slide the stick under the lefse — its tapered edges allows this. You can also use it to press down any rebellious bubbles that pop up while the lefse is cooking.
Some people used to just use slats from their window shades as lefse sticks.
See also: Lefse rolling pins
Language Notes
Sometimes called “lefse turning sticks”, “lefse turn sticks”, or “lefse spatulas”.
Lefse sticks. Leslie Seaton / wikimedia / 2013 / CC BY 2.0