Oven Shovels are used to lift things into and out of ovens.
They are made of wood or metal, and consist of a “paddle” attached to a handle. Small home ones will be about 15 inches (40 cm) long in total. There is usually a hole at the end of the handle for looping a string through for hanging the shovels in storage.
The paddle end of wood ones will be 1/4 to 3/8 (1/2 cm to 1 cm) thick.
Some metal ones will be shaped like a shovel with sides on the paddle part, like a dustpan. These are for removing ashes from a wood-burning oven.
Oven Shovels can be used to:
- lift free-form breads in and out of the oven;
- ease many small ramekin dishes in and out of the oven;
- move pizzas and pizza slices in and out of the oven.