What Stirs the Best, Fork, Spoon, Knife or Stirring Straw?

The best one, is the first one you grab.

Not fluid dynamics, logic.

The straw if you blow bubbles through it.

With all possible hand utensils in easy reach and a dish washer to clean a used utensil, I would choose a whisk to mix a powder into a liquid.

Not just any old whisk.

Use a cocktail whisk:

It's the best gadget to use to scramble eggs, too.

A spatula

There is one thing a spoon does provide above all other stirring implements. A spoon provides a method to sample the quality of the mixing action. Thus the same tool doing the blending can provide feedback on the blend.

I was at a bar a few weekends ago and observed the bartender use a straw with his finger over the end to sample the drink he had mixed before serving it. I am guessing more because that is what he had at hand that was disposable, but it looked like it worked just fine.

I thought the spoon advantage was in being able to use the back of it to trap and crush particles which have clumped.

In general practice, though, I use a fork for stirring/dissolving. Tines are next best thing to a whisk?

What mixes best - You!

Put your hand over the cup and shape vigorously.

Its best shaken, not stirred.

Regards,
007

But of course.

.

Bond's Martini Shaker

Nothing beats a blender....

I use a spoon and gently reverse rotation a number of times, without allowing the liquid to spin too much. Will apply for a patent on that sometime. S.M.

Mix with the handle end in the mixture of an ice-tea spoon. It also gets through the ice when mixing lemonade (sugar, reconstituted lemon juice and dihydrogen monoxide.

This is the kind of topic that makes you wounder out loud. Now back in the day when you began to wounder to loudly out loud, someone might come by and warp you and take you away. But, we stopped doing that or they got tired of me getting free, don't know which it is.

My milk and chocolate was much better when I stirred with a spoon thats for sure.

The Spoon.

There is no reference research here, because there is no need. My mother said so.

She taught me, as her mother taught her, and her mother taught her, that her own mother (81731 times removed), happened to have invented the spoon (previously known as yon flat stick thingy).

Her mother in turn, (my mother 81732 times removed), upon hearing the word 'spoon' for the first time, scolded impatiently: 'daughter don't stir'....and so the lexicon grew.

The closest tool - pen, screwdriver, spanner......

I too like the fork...Being on a weight loss program that requires the desolving of different powder preparations I find that the little seafood forks work well for drinks or whatever needs to be desolved in smaller quantities.

Go to Starbucks,let them do the stirring.

I made a special tool for this. It works fantasmagorically(actually a word). I took an old pure stainless fork and clipped the outside two edges at about 3/4 the length. Then using some MAPP gas and a pair of vice-grip needle nose pliers, I twisted the tines so they make a slight helical shape. Then I polished the sharp edges away and voila.

I always thought of doing it to a spork so I could sample but I can't find them in pure stainless.

You should post a picture of this "Thingy", I'd enjoy seeing it!

Since I drink instant coffee, the spoon that supplies the dry mix is also used to stir and sample. I have used some strange things when in the "deep woods". Sticks, rocks, fingers, knives, wire, and I just covered the cup with my hand and shook it once. All worked fine to get the job done!

If the mix is for myself to consume I usually use the device that I always carry with me: my index finger. It has the advantages that it is always within reach and its shape can be dynamically changed after insertion to accomodate various agitator configurations.

It also has the advantage that I don't have to look for a clean utensil to sample the mix since I can insert it directly into my mouth for tasting. Any dirt just makes the taste more interesting.

The old stand by...

6" scale

I also have no proof/test results that a fork provides the fastest, most thorough rate of dis solution of ingredients, though I am using the same thought process as you in that it just seems that the multiple tines will create the most turbulence (defined as; the haphazard secondary motion caused by eddies within a moving fluid.(dictionary.com)) That definition pretty much proves our point, I'd say!

Being of analytical minds (you and I both), I say, go with what you believe.

I DO work where we have a lab, and we DO test the dis solution of solids in a liquid, however it is either left undisturbed to sit and disolve to determine it's rate, or contained (capped) and shaken to determine it's sum of disolved solids.

Picking the one with a rounded stem or tubular handle will be more effectively efficient. You can manually spin it by holding that rounded stem between the palms of your hands then alternately rubbing them together as if you are trying to warm your hands. The speed of rubbing your hands together will be directly proportionate to the agitation that triggers the blending /mixing rate of the fluid..

I would think that a spoon, like a knife, would be able to get to any trapped powder in the very bottom edge. Now if you want to invent something, a spoon with holes drilled into it might work well for mixing.

already been invented :

You're right, but it that a little too big to mix a drink with?

A swizzle stick.