# Fork etiquette **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557 "2011-06-06T22:05:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/21 "2011-06-07T01:45:37Z")
The only thing I know about fork etiquette is not to take your fork and jam it into someone’s throat. That is BAD etiquette, but it is good for getting charged with attempted murder. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/22 "2011-06-07T01:49:05Z")
Fork? Knife? What’s wrong with hands and fingers? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/23 "2011-06-07T01:50:54Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Fork? Knife? What’s wrong with hands and fingers? 🙂 just fingers for me. i don’t like gravy in my palms. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/24 "2011-06-07T02:10:39Z")
None of you have ever heard this little poem? I eat my peas with honey. I’ve done it all my life. It makes the peas taste funny, but it keeps them on my knife. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/25 "2011-06-07T03:56:09Z")
I’m South African, now living in the States, and your first and second South African eat similarly to me. They both seem like examples of the same style, with varying types of food and levels of anal retentiveness. 🙂 Tines up or down is not something I do consistently: it depends on whatever is easiest for the type of food I am eating: whether I am scooping it onto the fork or stabbing it with the fork. I’ll use the knife to assist moving the food onto the fork where necessary, and typically am holding both the fork and the knife at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/26 "2011-06-07T04:14:12Z")
> [@Driver8](#): > > I’m South African, now living in the States, and your first and second South African eat similarly to me. They both seem like examples of the same style, with varying types of food and levels of anal retentiveness. 🙂 That is a good point. Like myself, these are engineer types, and one thing I’ve noticed is that we all seem to have our little OCD quirks. Their styles may just be a more typical approach taken to an extreme level. Even so, both will spend a good 30 seconds arranging things on their forks between bites. It seems inefficient, but if most of one’s time is spent chewing, it may not make much difference. > [@Driver8](#): > > Tines up or down is not something I do consistently: it depends on whatever is easiest for the type of food I am eating: whether I am scooping it onto the fork or stabbing it with the fork. I’ll use the knife to assist moving the food onto the fork where necessary, and typically am holding both the fork and the knife at the same time. Have you heard of the squishing thing, though? I use tines down for stabbing, but my second example put food on top of the convex surface, and the only way it stayed was because it was mushed between the tines. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/27 "2011-06-07T07:00:06Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > If you must pile food, why not use a spoon? > > I also hate it when people mix up their foods in the same bite. It seems…gross. Why is it gross? The food items on the plate have most often been specifically chosen to complement each other. ‘Compartmentalising’ of food is an OCD trait. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/28 "2011-06-07T07:23:38Z")
In Thailand we don’t use knives; we use the fork to push food onto the spoon. Except “we” doesn’t include me. I’m much too old a dog to learn new tricks; sometimes I try the spoon, sometimes the fork, but never both at once. This drives my wife crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/29 "2011-06-07T07:43:48Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Why is it gross? The food items on the plate have most often been specifically chosen to complement each other. ‘Compartmentalising’ of food is an OCD trait. If I wanted pea-flavored mashed potatoes, I’d make them as such! I think that it is gross. I mean, if I want to eat, say, a baked potato, I’d add butter and sour cream, but I wouldn’t add butter, sour cream, cheese, chives, mash it all up and then eat it in the same bite as some peas and a half a cooked carrot. If I order something and it comes with three kinds of food on my plate, I may want to enjoy those three different foods! I’m conscious of what I eat. I’m just of the opinion that at a certain point, you aren’t really tasting your mixed up mushy food - you’re making a new flavor, and that flavor is usually regurgitated barf. I also don’t understand guys who pile their sandwiches up with 10,000 different toppings. I obviously don’t like casserole. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/30 "2011-06-07T09:10:12Z")
Horses for courses, I guess. For me, enjoyment of food items is about tasting them individually _and_ in combination. If you have five different items on the plate, that’s 120 different possible taste/texture experiences at one sittiing. ETA: and also, mixing foods on the fork seldom if ever involves mashing the components into an unrecognisable pap. Not sure why you’d describe it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/31 "2011-06-07T09:43:28Z")
Something else I have noticed here is the way locals hold their knife, but don’t know how common it is. I, and most people I know back in the States hold their dinner knife like you would a bread knife in the palm of the hand blade straight out along the axis of the lower arm. However the locals here that I have dined with all hold their dinner knife overhand with the handle between thumb and fingers as you would hold the bow of a stringed instrument perpendicular to the axis of the lower arm. > [@Mangetout](#): > > mixing foods on the fork seldom if ever involves mashing the components into an unrecognisable pap. Not sure why you’d describe it that way. Unless it’s peas and I don’t have mashed potatoes for them to cling to. Then toward the end rather than chase them around the plate I just squash them under the tines of fork. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/32 "2011-06-07T13:38:26Z")
All that hand switching is just ridiculous. That Americans sit with one hand in their laps while eating, and chase their food around the plate with the other, is a source of puzzlement and amusement in many parts of the world, and rightly so. Fork in the left, cut with the right, transport food to mouth. When scooping: fork in the right, sometimes a knife in the left to provide blocking for those final bits, depending on the food item. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/33 "2011-06-07T13:52:30Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Despite the name, Euro style is common in the US Well, I do it, so I know it isn’t completely unseen over here, but I’m not sure how common it is. I don’t come across very many fellow Americans who do it my way. > [@](#): > > (and in fact the only way I was taught, though being the sinister type I keep my fork in the right hand). I’m right handed and I keep my fork in the right hand. No switching. > [@](#): > > The first one rested his fork on the plate, tines up, and used his knife to slide/scoop food onto the knife. He piled the food quite high, but was careful to not exceed the outline of the fork, and regularly used the knife to “carve” the pile into a rectangular prism shape. Once satisfied, he would lift the food into his mouth as a unit. It’s common to use the knife to push food onto a tines-up fork, but all this shaping and carving sounds like a personal idiosyncrasy. > [@](#): > > The second was a vegan, and much of his food consisted of squishy foods like rice, couscous, peas, etc. He would rest his fork on the plate tines down, and then use his knife to scoop food onto the fork. Of course, due to the curve of the tines this was not very stable, so he used the flat of the knife to squish the food down into the tines so that it held. He usually managed to combine foods so that more loose material (like lettuce) was held in place by the squishier material. As others have said, this method is common for things like mashed potatoes. > [@pulykamell](#): > > I grew up eating Euro style–the American practice of switching hands looks weird and needlessly inefficient to me. Me too. In fact, I thought I had invented all by myself a more efficient way to use a fork and knife. It was only later that I learned it was the European style. (The only difference being that under European rules, I was doing it the left-handed way by keeping my fork in my right hand.) > [@Candyman74](#): > > The difference I noticed when in the US is that we hold both utensils continually (fork left, knife right), but I’ve noticed Americans put the knife down and \*swap hands \*occasionally or something, though haven’t seen enough to discern the pattern there. The pattern is pretty simple. (For right-handers:) To cut, fork in left and knife in right. Once cutting is done, put down knife and transfer fork to right hand and eat. Repeat as necessary. It seems really inefficient and illogical to me, but that’s the way most people are taught here. One of my friends, in order to avoid the repeated switching, cuts up all his food first and then dispenses with his knife for the rest of the meal. I’m sure that’s a breach of etiquette too. > [@CitizenPained](#): > > I’m just of the opinion that at a certain point, you aren’t really tasting your mixed up mushy food - you’re making a new flavor, and that flavor is usually regurgitated barf. > > I also don’t understand guys who pile their sandwiches up with 10,000 different toppings. > > I obviously don’t like casserole. Well, then, from your point of view, I eat a lot of regurgitated barf. And I like it! Mmmmmm … baaarf. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/34 "2011-06-07T14:34:18Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It seems really inefficient and illogical to me, but that’s the way most people are taught here. One of my friends, in order to avoid the repeated switching, cuts up all his food first and then dispenses with his knife for the rest of the meal. I’m sure that’s a breach of etiquette too. Probably. It’s at least likely to be seen as a bit childish, in places where the two-handed method prevails. ---
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/35 "2011-06-07T14:40:37Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Probably. It’s at least likely to be seen as a bit childish, in places where the two-handed method prevails. Seen the same even where the one handed method prevails. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/36 "2011-06-07T14:54:14Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Horses for courses, I guess. For me, enjoyment of food items is about tasting them individually _and_ in combination. If you have five different items on the plate, that’s 120 different possible taste/texture experiences at one sittiing. That only applies to sushi! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/37 "2011-06-07T15:14:48Z")
A few years ago I bought a case (24 boxes, each box containing 144 pairs) of chopsticks from a Chinese grocery store. The price was too good to be true. Although they are meant to be disposable, I reuse them for a few weeks. So, I use chopsticks for pretty much everything except soup. ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/38 "2011-06-07T16:34:47Z")
This thread made me realize that I don’t ever use a knife! I’ve only been vegetarian for 1.5 years, but I’ve been cooking vegetarian-only since 2006. I can’t think of the last time I used two different utensils at once. It’s either a fork, a spoon, or chopsticks. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/39 "2011-06-07T17:05:04Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > That only applies to sushi! OK… whatever floats your boat. I can’t help wondering how you cope with restaurants though. Doesn’t nearly everyone mix their food as they eat? ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557/40 "2011-06-07T17:38:36Z")
I am a switcher, and have always been curious about something when reading these threads: If you are used to eating with the fork in your left hand and a knife in your right, what do you do when the meal doesn’t include large pieces of meat to cut? Do you use the knife anyway to help with scooping? If no knife, do you wield the fork in your left hand as normal, or use your right hand? In my entire life I would guess that about 5% of my meals have needed a knife, so it seems odd to imagine eating left-handed all the time just to facilitate the meat-cutting I seldom do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fork-etiquette/584557.md?page=3)