American here, and I’ve never done it the “American way”. Doesn’t take a whole lotta dexterity to bring a piece of cut meat to your mouth on a fork with one’s left (or non-dominant) hand.
Near as I can remember, when I first learned to eat solid food, my parents did the cutting-up for me. So anything that needed to be cut with a knife was cut by a knife in the right hand and a fork in the left, and then eaten with a fork in the right hand. That’s certainly the easiest way to do it if different people are doing the cutting and the eating.
Same here. I’m left-handed, so the switching never made any sense. I actually never noticed until I was 15 or 16 that other people (including my siblings) ate American style. I came from a large family, and at supper time my focus was always on getting my fair share. Allegedly my first words were a full sentence: “I did not say that,” in response to my brother’s claim that I wanted him to have my dessert.
Not the meat but things like rice and peas or anything you have to scoop. Don’t even think about asking me twirl pasta.
I suppose if my parents had encouraged it it would be perfectly natural for me but I honestly don’t remember them saying anything about any of it. And it’s not like one is a toddler when they’re first entrusted with using a knife. I can certainly remember my mother cutting my meat for me, then wanting and being allowed to do it myself. I’m sure she watched me for my own safety but it’s not like she had to explain how to do it. I also couldn’t tell you if she or my father ate the American way. Most likely but I literally cannot picture them in the specific act of using utensils.
I’ve always assumed it was supposed to be slower, too. It goes along with other things I was taught as mannerly, like always putting your fork down between bites, and being sure to take your time chewing. Avoid slurping your soup–let it cool first.
I don’t think people actually thought of adding a step to make it slower, but I think faster ways of eating were often seen as uncivilized. I mean, the fastest way to eat steak is to just pick it up in your hands and eat it, after all.
I’ve always associated those snobby, overly mannered people as doing extra frivolous things. I with I could think of examples right now, but I’m kinda tired.
I can’t say that I’m aware of what hands I handle my utensils with.
Are there people to whom this is an issue of concern?
Didn’t I raise you better than that?
Now sit up straight, stop poking your sister with the serving tongs, and tell us what you learned at school today.
Regards,
Shodan’s Mother
Exactly this. My mother explained, in detail, how it was to be done, and made sure I followed.
Later, in my teenage rebellion years, I said nuts, and kept the knife in my left hand. Why do this weird juggling act?
I have only on this board heard of switching hands being an American/non-American thing. In fact, I’ve never had the subject be brought up at all outside out here. Cut with your dominant hand and eat with the other is what I thought everyone did, and if anyone did otherwise, I reckoned it was because they wanted to.
I do at times just use a fork for everything, though, in which case I just keep the fork in my dominant hand the entire time, because why wouldn’t I?
I don’t know. If you asked me to describe how I use a knife and fork, I wouldn’t be able to. If you asked me to mime it, I don’t think I could unless you were actually serving me dinner, and it never occurred to me that other people would give a damn about which hands I used for what as long as I wasn’t just mashing my face into the plate.
From the OP link, the European manner:
For other food items, such as potatoes, vegetables or rice, the blade of the knife is used to assist or guide placement of the food on the back of the fork.[5] The tines remain pointing down.
I eat meat in the “European manner”, but the above seems odd to me.
I can’t decide who is more spastic: Americans who don’t have the coordination to use their non-dominant hand to use the fork to get food to their mouths, or Europeans who don’t have the coordination to rotate the fork before piling it with food which is not appropriate to stab with the points.
It is against the rules to alter quotes for any reason. Please don’t do this again.
The only utensil usage instruction I recall ever getting as a child was on how to hold my spoon, i.e. “don’t hold it in your fist like a shovel”.
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always held the knife in my right (dominant) hand and then brought the cut piece of meat/whatever to my mouth with the fork in my left hand. If what I’m eating does not require a knife, then my fork is in my right hand.
Yeah, I don’t do the European thing of putting stuff on the back of the fork, that’s retarded. I use the fork like a scoop like it obviously should be used.
I guess my supposition is that, absent any specific education, almost everyone should default to non-switching and non-back of fork. I don’t fully understand how either of those traditions have endured. Sure, back in the 50s when specific points of table etiquette were “a thing”, I could see people making a big deal of this but it’s odd to hear people who seeming absorbed such traits via osmosis.
I feel much more akin to the people for which thinking about these things has never been a part of their lives.
When I was a kid, my mother explained how to use a fork and knife American-style.
For emphasis, she also demonstrated how someone eating without switching utensils from hand to hand would look like a cross between a toddler and a caveman.
I think it has more to do with eye dominance, we don’t want the fork in the way so we can see what we are cutting so we simply cut and then change hands.
My parents were very particular about teaching us what you are calling the American method. Also that you are not allowed to cut off more than one piece of meat at a time (which would save time with the back-and-forth). My father especially made great fun of the British way of eating (using the knife to shovel a variety of stuff onto the back of the fork). I have retained enough of my childhood programming that doing things that way still seems somewhat uncouth, except for meat. I have no interest in making every mouthful have a little veg, a little potato and a little meat in it. I prefer to eat different foods separately or at least alternately.
Now apparently I have a hybrid method. I use the fork in my right hand for everything except things that need to be cut with a knife (usually only meat). For those things I will use the knife in my right hand and spear the meat with the fork in my left hand and eat it. Once cutting is done, the fork goes back in my right hand.
So I’m getting from this thread that there are at least four options (assuming right handedness for simplicity) being used. I’ll give them passive-aggressive names to allow for easier mocking:
“American” - Cut with RH, switch fork to RH.
“Clumsy-Cut” - Cut with LH, keep fork in RH.
“Wrong” - Some weird-ass thing with using the back side of the fork.
“Lazy” - Cut with RH, keep fork in LH.
I think we should schedule a meeting at the UN for consensus, right after we solve the “which way does the toilet paper go on the roll” thing.
I’d say that’s a safe assumption. Things can get pretty complicated.
