Alder wood is used for smoking food, particularly salmon. It also makes good charcoal. Some people won’t use it, though: there’s a folk belief that burning alder wood attracts the supernatural.
Treen
Baker’s Peel
A baker’s peel is a tool used to lift large baked goods such as breads and pizzas into and out of the oven.
Butter Moulds
Butter moulds are used to make portions of butter either more decorative for a pleasing effect, or to make them into a standard-sized shape for sale.
Carving Boards
Carving boards are boards for carving meat on at the table. They have sunken rims around them, and sometimes also sunken grooves through them. These are designed to catch and channel juices from meats being carved so they do not overrun on the table.
Danish Bread Whisk
A Danish bread whisk is a heavy-duty implement designed to beat heavy dough for bread. It mixes without incorporating air.
Firkins
A firkin is a small, wooden, straight-sided, covered tub that was used to store and ship butter in. There was no standard size. It was not actually a good way to store butter: spoilage regularly occurred.
Fish Plank / Plank Cooking
A fish plank is a board for cooking a fish on over a grill. It is also useful for any food that benefits from the low and slow cooking that indirect heat can provide over a flame.
Hickory Wood
The smoke from hickory wood chips imparts a pungent flavour to meats such as ham, ribs, or pork loin. But use judiciously: too much of it can ruin the taste.
Lefse Stick
A lefse stick is a carved wooden stick used to turn the large flatbreads known as “lefses” while cooking them on a griddle.
Meat mallets
Meat mallets are used to flatten and tenderize meat. They look somewhat like a hammer.
Mesquite
Mesquite is used in cooking as chips for grilling, or charcoal. When used as chips, it needs to be used in small amounts for short cooking times to avoid imparting a bitter taste to food.
Molinillo Chocolatero
A molinillo chocolatero is a stirring tool used in Mexico for making frothy beverages (coffee, chocolate, atole, etc.) They are made of ridged wood, and rubbed between your hands as you would a spinning top.
Rice Paddle
A rice paddle with a somewhat flattened bowl at the end. It is used to stir cooked rice when making sushi.
Rolling Pins
Rolling pins are long cylinders used to press out dough evenly and smoothly. They can be made out of a variety of materials, and have handles at the ends, or not.
Samp Mortar
A samp mortar is a tool for grinding dried corn. The mortar was made from the stump of a tree burned hollow, scraped clean and polished.
Skewers
Skewers are formed sticks with points on each end used to skewer together chunks of meat, vegetable and seafood meant for cooking together.
Spurtles
A spurtle is a long, round, thick piece of carved wood specially designed for stirring porridge. It will be thicker at the handle end, which is usually carved in a way to make holding easier.
Sushi-oke
A sushi-oke is a low wooden mixing bowl in which rice for sushi is cooled and seasoned with rice vinegar in preparation for the sushi making. The wood is a vital feature as it absorbs some excess moisture from the rice.
Toothpicks
A toothpick is a very small tool, originally made to clean tooth. It is now used for a variety of purposes in the kitchen. Toothpicks can be made from wood, metal, plastic or bone. At one point, it was fashionable to chew a toothpick in public to imply that you had just eaten in a quality restaurant.
Treen
Treen is a general category word used to refer to wooden tools and utensils. The most common treen items still in use in today’s kitchens are wooden spoons, wooden spatulas, cutting boards, and wooden lemon reamers.
Wooden Spoons
Wooden spoons are utility spoons for the kitchen, typically large and typically made from a single piece of wood. The wood will always be hardwood.