# How do you cut and eat your steak? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 17, 2010, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420 "2010-10-17T06:28:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SpartanDC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@SpartanDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpartanDC)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/21 "2010-10-18T19:48:17Z")
Fork in the left hand, knife in the right hand. And I’m left-handed. This was something I actually struggled a bit with as a kid, and to this day I always have to think about it for a second before I go in for the first cut. And I cut one piece off at a time. It never occurred to me to do it any differently. ---
**Author:** ![Peeta\_Mellark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Peeta\_Mellark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peeta_Mellark)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/22 "2010-10-18T19:55:16Z")
Knife in right hand, fork in left hand. Cut off one piece at a time, eat it with the fork in my left hand. I might alternate hands if I’m eating other things at the same time, but usually I eat most of the steak all at once and then eat the side dishes. I like to eat the steak while it’s hot. ---
**Author:** ![\_cc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/e19b73/32.png) [@\_cc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_cc)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/23 "2010-10-21T18:05:28Z")
I’m right-handed, so obviously I hold the steak down with the knife in my left, plunge the fork into it with my right, and tear a chunk off. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/24 "2010-10-21T18:21:29Z")
I am right-handed. I have the fork in my left hand and knife in the right. No switching of hands, doesn’t make sense to do that, fork is already in a hand that’s perfectly capable of putting food into my mouth, so I do so. EDIT: And as far as taking a drink of my chosen beverage, I use my left hand. But I still maintain that I’m right handed. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/25 "2010-10-21T19:09:57Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Yes, it’s considered proper American etiquette to hold fork in left hand, knife in right, cut off one piece, then put down the knife and take the fork up in the right hand to eat the cut piece. This is the clunkiest way in the world to eat a steak, and it’s exactly how I do it. I can’t do otherwise. I even get anxious if I cut more than one piece, like the etiquette police are going to fine me. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/26 "2010-10-21T19:19:30Z")
Fork in right hand, knife in left, no switching. And I’m actually right handed, though a bit more ambi than most. Just seems to be the easiest way. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/27 "2010-10-21T19:34:45Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Two hands, one piece of meat…what’s the issue? > > 😃 Even simpler is to liquefy the meat. So it’s two hands, one cup. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/28 "2010-10-21T19:53:13Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Because I’m very right-handed. The utensil that is doing the moving is always in my right hand, never the left. When the knife is cutting something up, it’s in my right hand. When the fork is moving from the plate to my face, it’s in my right hand. I might use my left hand to hold something in place with a fork, but that’s it. > > I cut food up in a grid pattern, as my parents taught me to do. I’ll cut off one row, then cut it up into pieces before eating any of the pieces. Repeat until whatever was being cut up is gone. Yep, reverse the hands since I’m a lefty, but other than that I do it your way right down to cutting up one row at a time. I switch hands because my right hand isn’t much good for anything but holding the meat down with a fork. Trying to eat with a fork or spoon in my right hand is courting spilling something on myself. Perhaps this wouldn’t be the case if I had a lifetime of practice, but I was taught to switch hands, so I don’t have it. I’d rather not wear any of my food, so I continue to switch hands. And honestly, I’ve never heard of anyone making an issue of it off this message board. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/29 "2010-10-21T21:58:04Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > If I were just eating a steak, I’d eat it like a European. But usually steak is served with other things that I can’t eat with the left hand. What are they? Being English I was raised to eat with fork in left and knife in right and not switch. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of anything I would commonly (or even uncommonly) eat with steak that I would not eat with my fork in my left hand (and tines down). I suspect it just comes down to what each of us is used to rather than any physical impossibility. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/30 "2010-10-21T22:43:11Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > i eat like a european: fork in the left, knife in the right. i don’t switch hands. That’s European ? My Dutch parents would slice up the steak in little stips beforehand so we could eat it without using a knife. That is the way I like to have my steak today. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/31 "2010-10-21T22:58:21Z")
Fork in left hand; knife in right hand. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/32 "2010-10-22T08:57:03Z")
Knife in right hand, fork in left. No switching and I find it no problem to use the fork for picking up just about any other food that may be on the plate with the steak. (I think this is just a matter of how you have been taught from childhood. I see some messes caused by children who have problems with the fork, tines down, but they eventually get the knack of proper use. An intermediate stage between using a spoon with mush and a fork with solid food would have the fork tines up and use it like a shovel, but they’d still have it in their left hand.) ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420/33 "2010-10-22T10:17:29Z")
Fork in left and knife in right. I don’t really see why handedness should come into it, where not exactly doing brain surgery here. There’s also nothing I’d eat with a steak that I’d use my right hand for. Cauliflower, mashed potato, pees, whatever, it all goes onto the fork in my left hand. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-cut-and-eat-your-steak/557420.md?page=1)