Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

[LibertyHallVols]

This one's for you, Rae Evans!

At the 150th Chicamauga, Rae Evans asked me, "Why do you Americans change hands when you eat?"

I had no idea what she was talking about.

"You know, you cut your food. Then you put down your knife, switch the fork to the other hand, then stab your bite and eat it."

Being a Hoosier boy, I'd never thought about it ("Behold a Hoosier! There is no guile in him!")

So, for our time period, which is correct?
...Is it The Star-Spangled Fork Flip?
...Or is it the two-handed Euro Cut-n-Munch?

For your consideration:

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2013/06/fork_and_knife_use_americans_need_to_stop_cutting_and_switching.html

The cut-and-switch is originally European. According to Darra Goldstein, a professor at Williams College and the founding editor of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, when forks first came to the European dining table, diners took their cues from the kitchen, where the fork would be held in the left hand to steady a slab of meat, say, and the right hand wielded the knife. So far, so good. But around the early 18th century, particularly in France, it became fashionable for diners to put the knife down after cutting, and swap the fork to the right hand—i.e., to cut-and-switch.

Enjoy and Bon Appetit!

[Jeremy Bevard]

Re: Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

I looked into this once and didn't save anything that I found. Didn't think I would need it! Then I found that the difference of how British and American used their fork/knife pre-dated our time by quite a but.

Now, I might be biased but I like to stab and eat versus pushing it onto the back of my fork!

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

Hallo!

I have read many histories and explanations, some good, some not as much (such as left-handed bias and discrimination).

Only because I leave for Belgium and France Sunday, and I am trying to get French back out of my head from decades ago...

"Service à la française" versus "Service à la russe." (French Service versus Russian Service). :) Courses in "Service à la française ("service in the French style") has all the food is brought out at once, in an impressive display. "Russian" is courses being brought to the table sequentially.

I was just at a wedding last week where the meal involved a setting of eight forks, five knives, six spoons, five glasses, two plates, and a bone tray.

IMHO, we as a country were enamored with "Things French" for about the first hundred years. Things changed about the Franco-Prussian War of 1870....

IMHO, much of this depends upon one's impression's socio-economic class not only in the education of which piece of silverware to use when... but also in having "lavish" enough meals to have a service style. But, over time, much "trickles' down the "class" ladder up to a point... even to teh working and lower classes.

Beyond that... there are other customs such as wear the napkin/serviette goes. Or not cutting food into little pieces first. :) Or should one push or pull a spoon in eating soup.

And things I have observed in nearly 40 countries of travel that does not always make it into etiquette classes and books. I have noticed "British" people tend to hold their left-handed fork tines down. Germans, tines up. Or my British friends like to "load" their forks (push then stab with both utensils/hands) with a piece of everything that is on their plates each time rather than "rotate."

In History...I try to add these things to my impressions. But, I also do it to better 'disguise' myself in a foreign country by "doing as the Romans do." :)

My Photobucket is not working today, but for a picture.. try "Service à la russe" on Wiki. NOT something the vast majority of CW soldiers would have seen but the "trickle down" down the socio-economic ladder worms its way in at even basic levels.

Curt

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

Thanks, Curt!

Yes! And let us not forget that there were some on the socio-economic ladder who simply held whatever utensil they had in a "ham-fisted" manner, working end up, and just shoveled food into their pie-hole! :wink_smil

[rbruno]

Re: Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

Very interesting question and thoughts on etiquette. I didn't realize there were so many differences. I eat with both hands. Fork in the left, knife in the right. I don't know if this is because I am somewhat ambidextrous or from growing up watching my Italian grandfather twist pasta with the fork in the left hand and the spoon in the right. Who knows.

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

In Italy, been there several times, I never got a spoon for my pasta. People didn't wind it around a fork either. I was disappointed.

When I lived in Germany, Germans used to tell us they knew we were Americans from switching hands with out forks when we ate. Also, using the side of the fork to cut our food. they considered it crass to do so and not use a knife. A French exchange student I dated once in college echoed that when we went out... "you Americans always use the side of a fork to cut things... why have a knife then?" ;)

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

Hallo!

My wife and I ended up making friends with some "Schwabians" that started at a Heimat Abend dinner in Bavaria.

We were eating, and they came up and asked whether the seats next to us at the table were taken. Later, they said they were surprised we were "Americans." I asked why? They said two reasons they thought we were German: 1. because of our the fork and knife use, and 2. because of how he acted toward each each other.

:)

Not my setting from the wedding, but here is an image of "Service a la russe." A Russian ambassador introduced it to France in the early 19th century, where it spread to England, where it spread to the U.S. Again, there is little about such a setting or service an everyday CW soldier would have known.. BUT the basics yes (and they are still with us today regardless of "class."

https://uniim1.shutterfly.com/ng/services/mediarender/THISLIFE/003054399646/media/113274799281/medium/1504203594018/enhance

Curt

[rbruno]

Re: Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

Johnny,
That is interesting. My grandfather was born in Italy and came over in his early teens. That is the only way I remember him eating pasta. As much as we look at our cultural as being regional, Italy is very regional from food to language. Maybe that custom is a local etiquette too.

[Michael Comer]

Re: Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

I've never done the cut and switch. Waste of movement and effort.

[mtvernon]

Re: Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

When I lived in Germany, Germans used to tell us they knew we were Americans from switching hands with out forks when we ate.

In the last restaurant I worked in, we had a waiter from France. One day he came in to the back and was visibly upset. When I asked him why, he said it was because of the awful table manners of Americans. No argument there! Then he went on a tirade and said that in World War II the Americans could train spies to look like Germans and sound like Germans. But the Nazis could walk into a restaurant and immediately point out who the American spies were based exactly on this American trait. I don't know if it was true or not, but since then I've never done the cut and switch.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Cut 'n Switch: How should we use a knife and fork?

Hallo!

Reminds me of scene in "Inglourious Basterds" a few years back (involving ordering three drinks).

Curt