The little button on top you use to turn it on. 
I’ve lived in America my whole life (39 years), and only learned about the “American method” about five years ago. It’s one of the stupidest ideas I’ve ever heard.
We always sat at the table for dinner and cutlery was held in the correct hand. Forks were used to spear food so the tines pointed down; except, that is, for when eating peas, when it was permissible to reverse the fork. Peas are best eaten together with mashed potato.
If I was tempted to reverse my fork, maybe to scoop up a reluctant brussel sprout or a piece of corn, my mother would say, “We are NOT Americans.” Americans, who all showered three times a day and invariably suffered from every ailment going, were held up to be the epitome of uncouth.
That seems to be the part that most people don’t notice; Americans tend to use a fork rather like a shovel.
I wonder if the difference in food goes along with the difference in technique. The Shovel Method[sup]*[/sup] works for small things (like rice or peas), goopy things (like baked beans), or fragile things (like scrambled eggs). Even with something chunky like stew or curry you can get more sauce with the Shovel Method. I think we do that so often that many Americans become accustomed to only bringing the fork to their mouth with their right hand, and continue to do it even with things like steak.
If that phrase catches on, I’m claiming credit.
I’m right handed and I find that using my dominant hand for the knife when cutting gives me more control and less chance of a mishap. Switching the fork to my dominant hand after cutting likewise gives me more control.
It’s not stupid and it’s not rude and if you think it is, you’re simply wrong.
This is me as well, and over the years I’ve definitely had a few people remark on it. Less so lately; maybe people are getting more polite, or maybe I’m just not eating out with any new people.
You sound like my mother, except that she taught me that the American style (fork in right hand, tines up - switch hands and use knife only when there is food that requires a knife to cut) was correct and that the tines-down-fork, don’t-let-go-of-the-knife style was the mark of an ignorant hick. (Later in life, she realized this was not true. But in 1960s middle America, we were unfamiliar with European customs.)
The vitriol in this thread amazes me. I taught my son that there are two types of good manners:
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The behaviors that are in and of themselves means of being kind and respectful to others: saying please and thank you, not shoving; not eating with your mouth open, picking your nose or conducting other activities in public that would nauseate other people. Although specifics may vary a little among cultures, these rules tend to be pretty universal, because they are fundamental and common sense guides to how to treat others.
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The arbitrary behaviors that people - social creatures that they are - use as signals to classify others in terms of their “breeding.” Things like moving your spoon away from you rather than toward you when scooping up a mouthful of soup. We need to be aware of those rules and follow them as needed, to avoid screwing up job interviews or being the boorish party guest that never gets invited back, but we don’t need to negatively judge others who don’t follow them.
As the European v. American style of knife and fork usage clearly falls into category 2, I have no idea why some posters in this thread seem so eager to disdain people who do things differently than they do. Lighten up, folks. Auntie Pam got it right in post #6.
Yes of course. As children lil bro and I were taught that it’s scandalously uncouth to be a two-fisted eater.
Life-long right-handed life-long Merkin here. My folks, for whatever reason, never taught me any table manners or etiquette at all, as far as I can remember. Seems like they just expected me to sort of absorb it from the ambient environment – which I apparently more-or-less did.
But I never noticed, nor imitated, nor cared, how other people handled their eating-irons. I just invented my own way, and it has caused a few strange questions from time to time.
I hold fork in right hand, tines down, and cut with knife in left hand. Never switch hands. I think I usually put the knife down in between cutting while eating with fork in right hand, then pick it up again for each subsequent piece.
Because of this, I have occasionally been asked if I am left-handed, and I have occasionally been asked if I’m British. I guess I eat like a left-handed Brit would.
(ETA: But when holding either a knife or fork in whatever hand, I never stick my pinky out.)
Right-handed American:
Fork in right hand (tines down when cutting). Knife in left. Never switch.
I was never taught a “proper way”, and this just felt natural (if not perfectly practical) when I began to use a knife. I wonder, every now and then, if the “switching maneuver” came about because many never learned how to cut with their non-dominant hand.
Hey, cmyk that’s just like me, in every detail you mentioned. Do you ever get the same questions I’ve occasionally heard? (“Are you left-handed?” “Are you British?”)
I’ve gotten the left-handed question (but only rarely), not the British question, though. I usually respond with, “No, it just makes sense, and comes naturally since I learned to use silverware.” Then I ask why they switch, but I never really get a satisfying answer. And as for being “proper”, it’s certainly an archaic notion now. At least in the States. But whatever, to each their own.
I do remember my dad watching me eat when I was a kid once, and being amused, he asked, wondering why I was using my left had to cut my meat. I seriously never noticed people switched hands for that, and chalked it down to it being awkward for most to use their non-dominant hand for that sort of thing.
P.S. I was lazy, and only read half the thread before I responded, then read your post above mine, and was glad to see I’m not the only one.
Normally, despite being an American, I eat “European style”. However, in formal situations I will wait until the head of the table starts and then follow his/her lead because I can do the “American style” thing when social niceties make it the better choice.
I can also switch to left-handed in either style, and I’m comfortable using chopsticks. Basically, I try to be flexible.
Exactly.
It’s quite a great secondary utensil for moving bits of food up against the fork, either for scooting food against the fork or more cutting.
and keeping my wife from grabbing any of my french fries.
Thaaat’s why all the nervous eyes around me while I eat…
I waited to respond to this thread because I seriously couldn’t remember HOW I ate. Dinner’s over! Chicken and Romanesco cauliflower tagine with bulghur on the side. I do the European style, too.
When I was 19, in 1980, I lived in Paris for several months and picked up several terrible French habits. Heavy smoking, drinking round the clock, eating pussy, and using my cutlery in the Continental manner. This last one irritated my father no end, so it became habitual.
I guess the way I do it is based on the fact that I am not very coordinated with my left hand so I do almost everything right-handed. Thus I switch.
And I really do believe that a knife is just for cutting (or sometimes for spreading butter on a roll). I’m pretty sure that’s what my mom said.
Wait, what? The switch-vs.-don’t-switch thing I knew about. But there’s also a thing about scooping soup?
What about scooping axially–i.e., the tip of the spoon hits the soup first? Is this the mark of a rube?
I’m a right-handed American, but I hold the fork in my left throughout a meal and don’t switch. It just seems like unnecessary additional work. Even if I’m eating something that doesn’t involve a knife, the fork or spoon is usually in my left hand, so I guess I’m a right-handed person that mostly eats lefty. I’m equally comfortable with both.