07 July 2021

"There are two types of people..." - updated


I recently discovered another tribe of which I apparently am a member.  I was invited to someone's home for dinner and was asked "are you a short-fork person or a long-fork person?"  As it turns out, I like to eat with a short fork, while my wife favors the long forks.  I didn't realize this distinction extended to other families, and have no idea how common or rare it is.

[forks in photo are not dirty - just reflecting the amateur photographer]

Addendum:  Found some interesting info on the history of the fork:
The word fork comes from the Latin 'furca' for "pitch fork." The two-prong twig was perhaps the first fork. In Egyptian antiquity, large forks made of bronze were used at religious ceremonies to lift sacrificial offerings. One of the earliest dinner forks is attributed to Constantinople in 400 A.D.; it can be seen in the Dumbarton Oaks collection in Washington, D.C. By the seventh century, small forks were used at Middle Eastern courts; one such fork, a small, gold, two-pronged tool, came to Italy in the eleventh century in the dowry of a Byzantine princess who married Domenico Selvo, a Venetian doge. After witnessing the princess use the fork, the church severely censured her, stating that the utensil was an affront to God's intentions for fingers. Thereafter the fork disappeared from the table for nearly 300 years...

The fork began to gain acceptance in Italy by the late sixteenth century, a period when upper-class Italians expressed renewed interest in cleanliness. However, the French court considered the fork an awkward, even dangerous, utensil, and the nobility did not accept it until the seventeenth century when protocol deemed it uncivilized to eat meat with both hands. The way to use the fork remained a mystery, and many sophisticates, notably King Louis XIV, continued to eat with fingers or a knife...

The modern table setting is attributed to Charles I of England who in 1633 declared, "It is decent to use a fork," a statement that heralded the beginning of civilized table manners. But it wasn't until almost a century later that the fork gained acceptance among the lower class... Because the average family owned a limited number of forks, historians suggest that the service of sherbet midway through a meal gave the servants time to wash the forks used earlier on...

In the seventeenth century, fork tines were made of case-hardened steel and were fast to wear down. To promote utensils with longevity, early fork tines were extra long in length and made with sharp pointed tips...

... three- and four-prong forks were slow to reach North America, where people continued to eat from a knife blade food that was difficult to spear with a two-prong fork, such as mashed potatoes and gravy.

,,, the collector may amass specialized forks—for eating lobster, fruit, dessert, ice cream, pastry, strawberries, snails, and oysters—from antique shops and specialty stores...

Forks with a wide left tine and an optional notch, such as a salad fork, fish fork, dessert fork, and pastry fork, provide extra leverage when cutting food that normally does not require a knife. 
I didn't realize that the little notch in the last tine of the salad fork is apparently there for a purpose.  You learn something every day.

37 comments:

  1. photo = dessert fork and dinner fork?

    I-)

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  2. This is why I continue to renew my subscription to TYWKIWDBI! I had no idea people ever CHOSE the short fork. In our house it's reserved for unsuspecting kids or for times when the dishwasher is full. The world is full of wonders.

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  3. Short-forker. Septuagenarian Texas native, Began short-forking about 20 years ago.

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  4. In my family, the distinction is between 3-tine forkers and 4-tine forkers.

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  5. I am slightly shocked that there are people who prefer the short forks. Chilling.

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  6. Long fork. Short forks are for psychopaths and fascists. There are no exceptions.

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  7. Long fork. 3-tined when I can get it.

    I'd rather eat with my hands than use a short fork.

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  8. We always called the short forks "salad forks." Don't know if that's a correct term, or just a local term. Distinguished by the one tine that's formed a bit differently.

    I don't own any. I have old long forks (shorter) and new long forks (longer.)

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  9. Short fork with long skinny handle

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  10. They're different forks for different foods (salad, dessert, etc. versus dinner entree). I can understand choosing to use the fork one prefers at home when amongst family, but not knowing that there's a reason for their difference is surprising to me.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I'm with you. Do people really not know this and legit think they're just short and long forks?

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  11. I prefer salad forks. I also prefer utensils that were not designed for giants, which means that an antique shop is the best place for me to look as the current fashion seems to be huge.

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  12. Being uncivilised, the dessert forks in our house only get used when all the regular forks are in the dishwasher (ie we never use them for dessert). If someone asked for a dessert fork to eat with I would be stunned.

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  13. I'm 57 and have been a short forker all my life. My wife and 3 sons are all long forkers. They tend to run out of forks before I do.

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  14. I use the salad/dessert fork for salads/desserts and the dinner fork for other things.

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  15. Civility would enjoin the use of a long fork when possible.

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  16. Husband has always been a short forker. He likes the short fork too.

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  17. At home it's more about what dish the food is served in. If I'm eating something out of a bowl a short fork is more practical -especially if you have to use the fork to cut something in the bowl.

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  18. I am appalled that so many people have willingly come out of the closet and admit to being long-forkers, seemingly oblivious to the waste of resources expended to manufacture long forks when a short one will perform the same task more efficiently. That attitude explains why the permafrost is melting in Siberia...

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    Replies
    1. The world may be dying but what price dignity? What price elegance? To try to force we, the Eloi, into using your base, lumpen, short cutlery. Not a life worth living.

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    2. I wonder if your posh elegance is a reflection of frustrated toxic masculinity. Unable to afford the traditional compensatory sports car, you choose instead to flash the extended prongs of your long fork while dining.

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    3. Foreshortened though they may be the tines of your wisdom have pierced effortlessly to the heart of my psyche.

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  19. BTW, I didn't realize until writing this post that the odd shape of the last tine of the salad fork is there for a reason. I've added an addendum to the post re the history of forks.

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    Replies
    1. So a runcible spoon is environmentally preferable?

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    2. Runcible: 1871, coined by Edward Lear with no definition, but was applied to the following by 1926.

      runcible spoon - A fork-like spoon that has a cutting edge.

      The word runcible, by itself, has no separate meaning.

      Delete
  20. for me, balance and the shape and texture of the handle are important. it is all about how does the fork (or spoon) feel in the hand.

    I-)

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  21. Too, too funny! My family used long tines, but when I married hubs he was a short tine user. Mind you, I was taught long tine for meals, short for dessert, who knows why. I switched and went on my much happy with meals as most dinner forks are large and I have small hands. I also seemed to use a soup spoon (large type of regular spoon) for most things and never realized it until hubs said something. Such heathenish ways!

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  22. Maybe it's a gender thing? I'm a long fork person and my husband is a short fork person, so our forks get even use.

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  23. Per Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, short-forkers chew on smaller portions with each bite, promoting better digestion and superior health. Theoretically, short-forkers will outlive the long-forkers and eventually take over our planet.

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    Replies
    1. Fear not. Mary Roach disproved that in her book Gulp.

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    2. Ah yes. A marriage-long struggle (16 years) for me and my wife.
      And with the spoons, too.

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  24. Look up formal dinner place settings. Each utensil has a specific purpose.

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  25. Short forking leads to premature mastication.

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  26. Why on earth would anyone give a rats patootie what fork I'm using?
    We don't need no stinkin' rules.

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  27. I grew up thinking of them as just long forks and short forks, and having no particular preference, but now that I'm an avid salad maker and eater, I have come to appreciate the value of a salad fork. When I use a longer, narrow tined fork to eat salad, I often have the problem of a skewered lettuce leaf ending up all alone way up at the 'top' of the tine, forcing me to put the whole end of the utensil in my mouth to get at it. The notched tines of the salad fork help to prevent this problem. They also are close enough together to scoop up small items like peas or nuts without letting them fall through the tines. Thus ends my ode to the virtues of the salad fork.

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