I’m an American with an English mother. I didn’t notice until I was in my late teens that I ate (with regard to silverware protocol) differently than most other people. I then learned that I eat like a Brit: keeping the knife in my right hand and the fork in the left hand with no utensil exchange between hands (as opposed to the American way of cutting the food, then transferring the fork to the right hand). For most foods, I keep the fork tines pointed downward making food transfer to the mouth a very smooth and efficient process. I can’t imagine eating the American way, it’s just…illogical. Do any other of you American Dopers eat the British way? If you don’t - try it, you’ll like it.
I do. To me personally it is the German way, as that was my own experience and insinuation within the Hessische being. Perhaps it is more accurately the “continental way”. Not only is it efficient, but I like sauce or gravy, so it also has the advantage of more soppage. The piling and swashing of sauce from the plate is facilitated by the superior control and concave of the fork.
…of course this is a tandem and cooperative motion, the gathering of sauce is enthused with the knife.
Ameri-doper here - yep, I eat British style. Can’t really see the point to the whole swapping deal.
Of course Swamp Thing has more refined table manners than I do.
- Peter Wiggen
I am American. I have always used a fork and knife the European way. The only column of Miss Manners that I have thrown across the room was a condescending little piece on this issue. I am very pro-American and I consider this to be among our most disgusting failures. We took a GOOD EUROPEAN IDEA AND CHANGED IT TO MAKE IT WORSE. That is not the America that I know and love. We make things more efficient. We improve things. All manners are supposed to have in origin in either efficiency or making other diners feel comfortable. Show me that here with this little in-joke of a tradition.
My MIL was born in England. She commented on my refined (unintentional) use of a fork and knife when we first ate. We have gotten along ever since.
For the first time in my life, I am forced to be disgusted with my country and I have no way to reconcile it.
It’s the way I eat. I don’t think it’s a ‘European’ thing or a ‘British’ thing. It’s just the logical way.
But, I also switch it up… I eat my peas with a fork…left hand knife gathering to upturned right fork. Do any of you wield the knife as a quill?
I’m American, and hold my knife in my left hand and my fork in the right without switching. I’m right handed. What does that make me?
None of my ancestors have been Brits unless you go quite a ways back, but yeah, I eat like that. Being left-handed probably helps 
I’ve seen threads discussing this before and was afraid to chime in lest I get deported for being unpatriotic. I’ve always eaten the way you describe.
Please tell me you hold the fork sort of the same way you’d hold a pencil, and not in a “I’m going to stab you with a fork” manner. That really drives me nuts to see an adult hold a fork that way.
Ambiquaddentdexterous?
When I’m eating things that are “cut off a bite and eat it,” I keep the fork in my left hand. However, when there’s no cutting, the fork is in the right.
None of the above?
I hold the fork (wrongly of course - see my earlier post with the Swamp Thing manners reference) gripped in my fist. Like you would hold it if you were going to bang on the table and scream for the cook to bring more. That is fist gripped around the base, tines pointing upwards if my palm is down.
Yes, I know it’s “wrong.”
Yes, I don’t care. It’s most effective for me.
- Peter Wiggen
Actually, on reflection, I guess what I describe could be “stab you with a fork” - if I were to wield a fork similar to a rapier.
I think of “stab you with a fork” as holding the base of the fork in your fist, with the tines/rest of the fork sticking out the bottom of your hand. So that you can stab someone with a fierce downward motion.
YMMV.
Whatever works for you. Looks awkward to me.
As Miss Manners has pointed out time and again, efficiency in eating is not as desirable as it is in many other aspects of life. I use the American fork-switching method, as it is both how I was raised to eat and easier. My left-handed father does it the other way. I’ve been trying to teach myself to do the left-handed fork thing (just for fun), but I find it very difficult, as my left hand, to be honest, seems sort of stupid. That’s why I don’t do it in public, as I am sure the spectacle of a grown woman feeding herself that way so ineptly would not add to anyone else’s dining experience.
Semi-British. I don’t switch after cutting (It seems a senseless time-waster to me.) but tines up when inserting the fork. I’ve never been called to task for it. Had I been, they would find forks make an excellent weapon.
DD
I use a spoon.
Yes, I eat the “British” way. Always have. From what I can tell, everyone else here does, too.
Among other topics, it was stressed as the proper way in the “eat like this lest you be seen as a heathen” class we all took in middle school. It wasn’t really necessary, though, as, again, we all ate like that already, with the exception of the kid from Florida. He had quite a hard time operating the fork, and never really got the hang of it.
I had never really paid attention before, but now I do notice how most other regions here eat, and how odd and strangely irksome it is–what with all the switching back and forth and propping the silverware up on the edge of the plate and holding the fork upside-down like it’s some kind of weapon.
It makes you want to berate them, but if you have sense, you hold back your comments: the way they hold their forks is much more conducive to stabbing, you know.
Logic and efficiency have nothing to do with table manners. If we wanted to be efficient, we’d put the food in the blender and drink it.
Or we’d use our fingers and teeth - why bother dirtying a fork, spoon, or knife when God or Nature (your pick) gave us perfectly good cutting, ripping, and handling devices? It isn’t about efficiency.
Now, while I could make an argument that my right hand is stronger and more dextrous, so obviously, when I need to cut, I’m going to use my right hand, and when I need to maneuver food, I also use my right hand, but that would be stupid. Sometimes, manners have deep meanings that can be analyzed and understood.
Sometimes, they just are.