Scrape, Lift, Divide, Clean: Why You Need a Bench Scraper

A good bench scraper is worth its weight in figurative kitchen gold. It can clear a cutting board, transfer ingredients to prep bowls, get a counter clean, divide biscuit dough, lift gnocchi into a pot of boiling water…the options! Once you buy one, you’ll use it constantly. And then you’ll get a second and a third, so you don’t have to keep just one constantly clean. 

After testing eight bench scrapers, we named the $12 OXO Bench Scraper our favorite. What makes it so great? We’re so glad you asked! For starters, the OXO scraper has a wide, rectangular blade that easily scoops and holds piles of chopped vegetables. The blade is also thin and nimble, and has a ruler on the end for portioning dough. Traveling up to the handle: it’s rounded, silicone-coated, and grippy. What’s! Not! To! Love!

In celebration of the mighty bench scraper, here’s a non-exhaustive list of what it can be used for: 

• Cleanup 
• Transferring ingredients to prep bowls 
• Portioning dough
• Getting pie crust unstuck from a counter
• Folding dough onto itself
• Making chocolate curls
• Placing gnocchi and other dumplings gently into a pot of boiling water
• Slicing butter
• Portioning burgers
• “Removing stickers from glass bottles or labels from plastic containers is also a snap,” as Kenji explained here

To buy: OXO Bench Scraper, $12 at amazon.com

Good to Know

• Materials: Stainless steel and silicone
• Blade width: 6 inches
• Weight: 6.7 ounces
• Dishwasher-safe: Yes

FAQs

What’s the best bench scraper?

After testing eight bench scrapers, our top pick is from OXO. Our runner-up is a slightly cheaper Norpro model.

Can you clean a bench scraper in the dishwasher? 

Our favorite bench scraper from OXO is dishwasher-safe. Models with wooden handles shouldn’t be cleaned in the dishwasher, though. As always, we recommend checking the manufacturer’s care instructions to be safe.