A traditional ladle with a deep bowl is great for moving portions of soup from the pot to the bowl, but for other purposes, like skimming I prefer a large metal cooking spoon with an elongated and shallower bowl. I took my large metal spoon and bent the handle up from the bowl so it’s almost upright the way the handle of a ladle is, rather than in a straight line with the bowl. Works great.
Since most soup pots are round, a round or oval spoon works better getting at the edges of the pot than a square edge ladle would.
