Answer: Measuring

While it might not be quite as mysterious as the origins of Stonehenge, there’s a little mystery lurking in millions of kitchen drawers across the world: the hole in the center of the spaghetti spoon.

You may have never noticed it or you may, like us, have stared at it many a time while scooping spaghetti out of the pot, wondering why exactly every spaghetti spoon you have ever seen has a perfect circle cut in the center. Is it for drainage? Does it help serve the pasta in some way?

The answer to this particular mystery is best discovered if you use the spoon before you’re scooping the cooked pasta out. The hole, believe it or not, is a portion guide for measuring spaghetti. One bundle of uncooked spaghetti noodles the diameter of the hole is one serving size.