Talk:Dessert spoon

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OK, I'm confused. As a unit of measurement, it seems a lot of cooking references (at least on the web) convert 1 dessertspoon to 10 ml, or 2 US teaspoons. However, Google's calculator function converts 1 Imperial dessertspoon (is there any other? I'm not aware of any US measurements called that) to 11.84 ml, or 2.4 US teaspoons. I'd think a 20% variation is pretty significant. Why is Google different? Where did they get their numbers?

I am also confused: where I come from--an Italian family not in the USA-- the dessert spoon it supposed to be more of a rounded bowl or straight, like a shovel for ice cream. It is not pointy and it is alittle large than a tea spoon.

On the other hand, the sooup spoon looks like a table spoon, much larger than a tea spoon. Not circular-round bowl.

--Why are soup spoons small and round in USA? --Is in Europe like in America? -- is there an "international" well accepted standard in "culinary and etiquette" about this?

[edit] Substitution of teaspoon.

"It is commonly but not exclusively used in eating desserts, since a teaspoon may also be used for this."

Miss Manners would seem to disagree with that statement: "Miss Manners will overlook the substitution of a salad fork for a dessert fork, provided you do not try to pass off a teaspoon as a dessert spoon. Where that habit came from she cannot imagine, but a dessert spoon must be larger, and the only passable substitution would be an oval soup spoon." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30340-2005Mar12.html) 192.82.6.14 04:13, 31 May 2007 (UTC)