Not a name everyone recognises. Historically from Scotland, where, in the era before rolled oats, spurtles were long spindle shapes for the stirring of oats into porridge.

Graham Kerr, the galloping gourmet in the UK and later Martha Stewart in the USA took that traditional shape and changed it quite dramatically. It became wider, in different styles, essentially becoming a combo of wooden spoon and wooden spatula that could do a variety of things in the kitchen.

Todays wooden spurtles come in both long and short lengths, with slotted blades and non slotted, with curved blades and straight blades.

A large spurtle is really useful when mixing and stirring heavy dishes, while a small spurtle is great at mixing a salad. 

When cooking fish, a spurtle may help you leave all the fat in the pan and safely remove the fish from the pan, full and unbroken.

Spurtles can be used for frying fish, pancakes, removing a pie from an oven or flipping an omelet.. You can use a spurtle to scoop things like cream from a bowl, or soft potato from a pot. Stir chilli's more evenly or fold batters. Stir soups and stews, crush tomatoes for homemade sauces or avocado's for guacamole. They can also be used for serving cakes.

 They truly are the most versatile kitchen utensil.

We have these long stirring paddle style spurtles currently.