Stainless Steel Wooden Strainer Ladle
S
Sale price
$39.99
Regular price
$66.00
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S, M or L — which size do I actually want?
Match the strainer to your biggest pot, not to the job you have in mind today. A head that is too wide will not fit into a saucepan; a head that is too small takes six passes to clear a pot of pasta.
| Choose | If this sounds like you |
|---|---|
| S | You are lifting small things out of small pans — a poached egg, blanched garlic, tea leaves, a single serve of dumplings. Also the one that fits inside a narrow jar of pickles or olives. |
| M | Cooking for two to four in standard saucepans. Fits a normal pot without fouling the sides, and clears blanched vegetables or a batch of gnocchi in two scoops. |
| L | Deep stockpots and big batches — pasta for a table of six, a pot of noodles, skimming a stock, or lifting fritters out of a wide pan of oil. |
If you are genuinely torn, M does about ninety percent of what most kitchens need.
Does the wooden handle survive a hot pot?
Yes — that is the entire reason it is wood. The handle stays cool over a boiling pot where a full steel one gets uncomfortable to hold. What it does not survive is soaking and the dishwasher.
| Works on | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Boiling water, stock, hot oil for shallow frying, stainless and enamel pots, and reaching into deep jars and brines. | The dishwasher, leaving it lying in a full sink, resting the handle against a lit burner, and the microwave. |
Cleaning: wash the head under hot water straight after use, before anything starchy sets in the perforations — a soft brush from the back of the head pushes debris out rather than deeper in. Wipe the handle with a soapy cloth, do not submerge it, and towel it dry.
The step people skip is drying the joint where the wood meets the steel. Water sitting in that collar is the one place these fail. Ten seconds with a towel, and it will still be tight in five years.
Lift food out of the pot, instead of pouring the pot into the sink.
Draining is the clumsiest thing that happens in a kitchen. You carry a heavy pot of boiling water across the room to a colander that is sitting in the sink on top of the washing up. Steam goes straight up into your face, half the pasta lands in the colander and a few pieces go down the drain, and the starchy cooking water you actually wanted for the sauce is gone. Then you have a hot colander to wash as well.
A strainer ladle inverts the whole operation. The food comes out; the water stays where it is. Nothing is carried, nothing is poured, and the pot is still full of stock or pasta water if you want it.
Why the two materials are doing different jobs
An all-steel skimmer is fine until the pot has been boiling for twenty minutes. Then the handle has been sitting in a column of steam and radiant heat and you need a cloth to pick it up — which is exactly when you are trying to work quickly with one hand. An all-wood or all-plastic tool has the opposite problem: it cannot take hot oil, it stains, and a perforated head carved from wood would be far too thick to slide under a poached egg.
Splitting the two puts each material where it earns its place. The head is stainless steel: thin enough at the rim to get underneath delicate things without breaking them, perforated so liquid drains out fast rather than being carried along, and unaffected by salt, acid and boiling water. Stainless also does not hold flavour, which matters if the same tool goes from a fish stock to a pot of dumplings. The handle is wood, so it stays cool in the hand, and it has enough diameter to hold securely with wet fingers — a thin steel stem gets slippery at the worst possible moment. The head sits at an angle to the handle rather than in line with it, which is what lets you scoop along the bottom of a pot without turning your wrist over.
What it replaces
- The colander — for anything you are cooking in water and want to lift out in batches. Pasta, gnocchi, dumplings, blanched greens.
- A slotted spoon — the perforations drain far faster than three slots do, so nothing arrives at the plate swimming.
- A spider for frying — lifting fritters, falafel or crumbed food out of shallow oil and letting it drain over the pan.
- Fingers in a jar — olives, pickles, capers and preserved lemons, out of the brine without soaking a spoon or your hand.
- Skimming — pulling the scum off a simmering stock, which is the difference between clear broth and cloudy broth.
What You're Getting
- One strainer ladle in your chosen Size — S, M or L
- Stainless steel head, perforated for fast drainage and thin at the rim to slide under delicate food
- Wooden handle that stays cool over a boiling pot and grips securely with wet hands
- Angled head so you can scoop along the base of a pot without rolling your wrist
- Non-reactive head — salt, acid and boiling water do not mark it, and it does not carry flavour between dishes
- Handles pasta, dumplings, blanched vegetables, poached eggs, shallow frying, stock skimming and jar work
- Care — rinse the head under hot water immediately, brush from the back to clear the perforations, wipe the handle and dry the joint
- Never put it in the dishwasher, leave it soaking, or rest the handle against a burner
Free tracked shipping to your door. Easy 30-day returns.
Free tracked shipping to your door
30 days to live with it. Send it back if it’s not the one — fewer than 1% of customers ever do.
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Orders are packed and dispatched within 1–3 business days of payment.
Delivery time
- USA — 5–10 business days after dispatch
We ship within the United States only.
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Every order ships with end-to-end tracking. You’ll get a tracking link by email the moment your parcel leaves the warehouse.
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If a piece doesn’t feel right in your home, get in touch within 30 days of delivery. We’ll arrange a refund or exchange — whichever you prefer.
No essays required. No restocking fees. Just a quick email to support@loftandstone.com and we’ll take it from there.
Fewer than 1% of customers ever need to use this, but the option’s always there — because home should feel like home.
