Knife and Fork Etiquette

Gern Blansten

Yes this is stupid but it's driving me crazy.  I have never noticed this as much as I do now.  

I was taught to eat using the  "American" method.  This is where you (assuming you are right handed) hold your fork in your right hand, only using the knife to cut your food.  When cutting food you use the knife in your right hand and hold the food with your fork (now in your left hand).  When done cutting you switch the fork back to your right hand and eat like a human being.

The "European" method is where you hold your fork in your left hand and knife in the right...never switching hands thus causing you to eat like a Neanderthal.

Serious question....how do you eat?

Gern Blansten

American Method

It just seems like more people on TV and in movies are using the European method for some reason.  I don't like it....it is leading to the collapse of society.

Smellyman

Ha.  As an American who has had dinner with a ton of Brits, watching them eat with their fork upside down with their knife in the other hand is super weird to me.

Of course I am a barbarian to them.

hedonist

I'm a southpaw - fork in my left and knife in my right.

I must appear so unrefined

rgambs

American Method

I use spoons on most foods that aren't cuts of meat.  I scoop, bro, stabbing is for savages.

I think the real question is fork or spoon for Mac and cheese.  My in-laws use forks on anything stabbable and I'm always over there using a spoon and getting all the drippins.

Gern Blansten

American Method

rgambs said:

I use spoons on most foods that aren't cuts of meat.  I scoop, bro, stabbing is for savages.

I think the real question is fork or spoon for Mac and cheese.  My in-laws use forks on anything stabbable and I'm always over there using a spoon and getting all the drippins.

Depends on the consistency of the mac/cheese.  Fork if not drippy, spoon if drippy.  Using the right hand of course (if right handed).

I would like to see sporks come back.  

Gern Blansten

American Method

eddiec

I think I'm ambi-forkstrous.

It all depends on what I'm eating.

My wife is Irish and she obviously uses the Euro method- after cutting, she uses the knife to pile up the fork with a bit of everything on the plate. I could never get into that method.

Gern Blansten

American Method

eddiec said:

I think I'm ambi-forkstrous.

It all depends on what I'm eating.

My wife is Irish and she obviously uses the Euro method- after cutting, she uses the knife to pile up the fork with a bit of everything on the plate. I could never get into that method.

Yeah I know what you mean.  What is odd to me is that I have noticed my parents doing that shit with their knife....they taught me how to use a knife/fork and I never learned that shit.

rgambs

American Method

eddiec said:

I think I'm ambi-forkstrous.

It all depends on what I'm eating.

My wife is Irish and she obviously uses the Euro method- after cutting, she uses the knife to pile up the fork with a bit of everything on the plate. I could never get into that method.

I like the idea of enjoying the tactile experience of eating like that, but in practice I want efficiency.  That's poetic and all, but it's too much unnecessary motion.

brianlux

European Method

European method when food requires cutting.  It wasn't something I was taught so much as intuitively got in the habit of doing because it makes sense.  But when I eat food that does not require cutting, the fork or spoon resides in my right hand. 

HesCalledDyer

Well I use forks & spoons with my left hand anyway, so the knife is always on the right.

Meltdown99

American Method

I can not cut food or feed myself with my left hand.  I am right handed, 2 years ago I had a pinched nerve that made my right hand non-functional for about a week.  I bet I lost 10 pounds that week, it was getting to the point eating was more trouble than it was worth...lol

Go Beavers

HesCalledDyer said:

Well I use forks & spoons with my left hand anyway, so the knife is always on the right.

Same here. I’m a lefty with silverware only. 

And what’s with the baby sized spoons? I need something big to shovel those grap-nutz down my gullet. 

PJ_Soul

I use neither, really. While I'm generally right handed, I'm oddly ambidextrous when it comes to holding my knife and fork, and I get confused about which hand to use for what regularly. So I do switch back and forth, but probably more randomly than the supposed American way. I'm only doing it because I'm not sure which is best for me, lol. But FWIW, Europeans definitely don't look like cavemen when they eat, and I would say that Americans are far more likely to just hold their utensils like a gorilla, in a fist.

PJ_Soul

Go Beavers said:

HesCalledDyer said:

Well I use forks & spoons with my left hand anyway, so the knife is always on the right.

Same here. I’m a lefty with silverware only. 

And what’s with the baby sized spoons? I need something big to shovel those grap-nutz down my gullet. 

I can only use the teaspoons. Those so-called regular sized spoons are what I use for serving out of pans onto plates! I don't understand how anyone can eat with those!

Annafalk

I have the fork in my right hand all the time, why switch for the cutting part?  

HesCalledDyer

PJ_Soul said:

Go Beavers said:

HesCalledDyer said:

Well I use forks & spoons with my left hand anyway, so the knife is always on the right.

Same here. I’m a lefty with silverware only. 

And what’s with the baby sized spoons? I need something big to shovel those grap-nutz down my gullet. 

I can only use the teaspoons. Those so-called regular sized spoons are what I use for serving out of pans onto plates! I don't understand how anyone can eat with those!

Haha, yep.  I've only ever used those for prep/mixing or serving.

brianlux

European Method

A knife

A fork

A bottle and a cork

That's the way

You spell "New York"

I got, cocaine

Runnin' round my brain

Cocaine

Runnin' round my brain.

HughFreakingDillon

why the hell would you weirdos switch hands?

fork in right hand
knife in left
THE END

HughFreakingDillon

How does switching your fork between hands make it more refined? it's actually less efficient, making YOU the Neanderthal. LOL

brianlux

European Method

While were on the subject, what about using a spoon to eat soup?  My first wife almost cancelled our wedding because we went out for lunch and I was spooning soup forward, toward me and she said, "Like a ship put out to sea, I dip my spoon away from me."  I nearly gagged.

PJ_Soul

brianlux said:

While were on the subject, what about using a spoon to eat soup?  My first wife almost cancelled our wedding because we went out for lunch and I was spooning soup forward, toward me and she said, "Like a ship put out to sea, I dip my spoon away from me."  I nearly gagged.

Wow, only dipping the spoon away from you is certainly proper... Like, dinner with the Queen proper, lol! The only thing I'm really a stickler about with this stuff is how people actually hold their knife and fork in their hands. I do think there is a right way and a wrong way (and polite way and a rude, trashy, monkey way). Oh, and also how and when people scoop or pierce, and how they do it. I.e., people should be turning the fork down towards the plate to pierce, with their index finger pointing down against the back of the fork for control, and should only scoop when absolutely necessary.

brianlux

European Method

PJ_Soul said:

brianlux said:

While were on the subject, what about using a spoon to eat soup?  My first wife almost cancelled our wedding because we went out for lunch and I was spooning soup forward, toward me and she said, "Like a ship put out to sea, I dip my spoon away from me."  I nearly gagged.

Wow, only dipping the spoon away from you is certainly proper... Like, dinner with the Queen proper, lol! The only thing I'm really a stickler about with this stuff is how people actually hold their knife and fork in their hands. I do think there is a right way and a wrong way (and polite way and a rude, trashy, monkey way). Oh, and also how and when people scoop or pierce, and how they do it. I.e., people should be turning the fork down towards the plate to pierce, with their index finger pointing down against the back of the fork, and should only scoop when absolutely necessary.

Not to mention the rudeness of grunting, groaning, loud belching and spitting out food... at least in our culture. 

Oh, and friggin cell phones at a meal in restaurant!

HesCalledDyer

Shovelers bother me.

Gern Blansten

American Method

brianlux said:

While were on the subject, what about using a spoon to eat soup?  My first wife almost cancelled our wedding because we went out for lunch and I was spooning soup forward, toward me and she said, "Like a ship put out to sea, I dip my spoon away from me."  I nearly gagged.

Never thought much about that but I like your method.

People slurping drives me nuts.  Eating ramen next to a stranger is difficult.

Gern Blansten

American Method

HughFreakingDillon said:

How does switching your fork between hands make it more refined? it's actually less efficient, making YOU the Neanderthal. LOL

I guess it is because you eat with one utensil instead of two.  To me it just doesn't seem proper or polite to clank two utensils on a plate.  I realize I am probably OCD about that....

mace1229

American Method

PJ_Soul said:

I use neither, really. While I'm generally right handed, I'm oddly ambidextrous when it comes to holding my knife and fork, and I get confused about which hand to use for what regularly. So I do switch back and forth, but probably more randomly than the supposed American way. I'm only doing it because I'm not sure which is best for me, lol. But FWIW, Europeans definitely don't look like cavemen when they eat, and I would say that Americans are far more likely to just hold their utensils like a gorilla, in a fist.

I've seen more and more grown men do that, hold it in a fist or some other weird fashion that I learned not to do when I was 3. That really weirds me out more than anything.

josevolution

That’s why Japanese & Chinese folk got it right , 🥢 fuck forks & knives 

oftenreading

Gern Blansten said:

brianlux said:

While were on the subject, what about using a spoon to eat soup?  My first wife almost cancelled our wedding because we went out for lunch and I was spooning soup forward, toward me and she said, "Like a ship put out to sea, I dip my spoon away from me."  I nearly gagged.

Never thought much about that but I like your method.

People slurping drives me nuts.  Eating ramen next to a stranger is difficult.

It’s really, really difficult to eat ramen neatly. Especially with chopsticks. 

Or maybe it’s just me. 

Gern Blansten

American Method

josevolution said:

That’s why Japanese & Chinese folk got it right , 🥢 fuck forks & knives 

Yeah but then they grab large pieces of meat, etc and gnaw at it because they don't have a knife to cut it.