What is the difference between forks?
Hoyt
houghi wrote in article <335e086...@news.ping.be>...
>Afriend of mine asked me a question I am unable to answer.
>
>He asked me why a fish-fork has tree teeth and a meat fork four.
>
>I have tried to answer that quetion by asking in restaurants and by
>logic, but to no avail.
>
The fork, from the Latin "furca" was introduced in 11th Century Tuscany; it
was a two pronged utensil. The four pronged variety gained poularity in
pre-Revolutionary France. It was considered appropriate for only the upper
class to use a four pronged fork. But three prongs? Well, before forks, the
common people ate with the five fingers of their hands although the Roman
"three finger rule" influenced the upper class. The three pronged forks
likely continued this tradition. But why fish forks? I haven't a clue. ( A
popular Williamsburg-style of utensils uses three prongs for the dinner
fork.)
For this information, I consulted _Extraordinary Origins of Everyday
Things_ by Charles Panati (ISBN 0-06-096093-0), a book I highly recommend
as a worthy adjunct to Cecils' collected wisdom.
73,
Hoyt
Rick Goldstein
>>>>> "houghi" == houghi <hou...@ping.be_delete_this> writes:
In article <335e086...@news.ping.be> hou...@ping.be_delete_this
(houghi) writes:
houghi> Afriend of mine asked me a question I am unable to answer.
houghi> He asked me why a fish-fork has tree teeth and a meat fork
houghi> four.
In my house growing up, a fork had four tines, period.
A utensil with three tines was a threek.
With two, a tuke.
Knives were occasionally referred to as wunks.
Rick "Sometimes my mother was really embarrassing" Goldstein
Eric Pobirs
> >
But why fish forks? I haven't a clue. ( A
> popular Williamsburg-style of utensils uses three prongs for the dinner
> fork.)
Perhaps it was a high falutin' affectation by the Victorians or whoever
making a connection between seafood and the trident often associated
with the sea god of some ancient cultures.
Eric Pobirs
David E Romm
In article <335e086...@news.ping.be>, hou...@ping.be_delete_this
(houghi) wrote:
> Afriend of mine asked me a question I am unable to answer.
>
> He asked me why a fish-fork has tree teeth and a meat fork four.
>
> I have tried to answer that quetion by asking in restaurants and by
> logic, but to no avail.
>
> I hope you can help me out.
I confess this is from a vague memory, but it has something to do with
using the fork to rip off the meat (or stabilizing it while cutting) vs.
delicately prying the meat of the fish off the bones.
Or, of course, tradition.
--
New Shockwave Page up at last!
http://www.visi.com/~romm
Give me ambiguity, or give me something else.
SJF 37
In article <w49n2qp...@hyperion.colorado.edu>,
h...@hyperion.colorado.edu (Rick Goldstein) writes:
>In my house growing up, a fork had four tines, period.
>
>A utensil with three tines was a threek.
>
>With two, a tuke.
>
>Knives were occasionally referred to as wunks.
>
>Rick "Sometimes my mother was really embarrassing" Goldstein
Ok, it's time for a round of embarassing confessions.
I did not learn the term "dustpan" until I was in my late teens,
and moved away from home. In my parents' house, we always
cleaned up with a gride and broom.
Regards from Deborah
http://members.aol.com/SJF37/homepage-sjf37-index.html
http://members.aol.com/SJF37/index.html
http://members.aol.com/SJF37/web-page-links-index.html
Steven Peterson
SJF 37 (sj...@aol.com) wrote:
: I did not learn the term "dustpan" until I was in my late teens,
: and moved away from home. In my parents' house, we always
: cleaned up with a gride and broom.
*OUCH*
Now, that's just bad.... :-)
-- Stiv
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Klaus Ole Kristiansen
In the works of Homer there are five-pronged forks.
Klaus O K
Dennis Thompson
In article <3362a19...@news.ping.be>, hou...@ping.be_delete_this says...
>
>Afriend of mine asked me a question I am unable to answer.
>
>He asked me why a fish-fork has tree teeth and a meat fork four.
>
>I have tried to answer that quetion by asking in restaurants and by
>logic, but to no avail.
>
>I hope you can help me out.
>
>
Well, what you are looking at is just a pittance compared to the full
Victorian silverware service. They had *hundreds* of different eating/serving
pieces, all very specialized. There were forks for meat, fish, cheese, salad,
oysters, olives, asparagus, and dozens of others. They varied in number of
tines, tine shape, length, width, curvature and spread angle.
It apparently was the fashion to invent a new utensil to impress your dinner
guests. Then, everyone simply had to have the new fork/spoon/whatever or you
were out-of-date!
I have seen photos of such services, and they are truely impressive. I wish I
had a picture I could point you towards, but I couldn't come up with one in a
quick search. If you do locate a picture with description, many of the uses
will be obvious, if excessive.
DT
Charles Wm. Dimmick
houghi wrote:
> He asked me why a fish-fork has tree teeth and a meat fork four.
>
> I have tried to answer that quetion by asking in restaurants and by
> logic, but to no avail.
I haven't seen a fish fork in several years, but I seem to remember
that the tines of a fish fork are flatter than those of a dinner
fork (=meat fork). It is easier to stick rounded pointed tines into
beef, but fish tends to flake and is more easily broken off into
bite-size pieces with a fork with flat tines. So I think the answer
may be that flat tines take up more room than rounded tines.
If I'm wrong, then please tell me. I'm not certain this is correct.
Charles Wm. Dimmick
"...and some rin up hill and down dale, knapping the chucky stanes
to pieces wi' hammers like sae mony road-makers run daft -- They say
it is to see how the warld was made!"
Nancy J. Gill
Dennis....@lerc.nasa.gov (Dennis Thompson) wrote:
>Well, what you are looking at is just a pittance compared to the full
>Victorian silverware service. They had *hundreds* of different eating/serving
>pieces, all very specialized. There were forks for meat, fish, cheese, salad,
>oysters, olives, asparagus, and dozens of others. They varied in number of
>tines, tine shape, length, width, curvature and spread angle.
[snip]
>I have seen photos of such services, and they are truely impressive. I wish I
>had a picture I could point you towards, but I couldn't come up with one in a
>quick search. If you do locate a picture with description, many of the uses
>will be obvious, if excessive.
I have a modern set of flatware, from Thailand, composed of
12 place settings, each of which has 12 pieces (gross!).
Each has (working inward) left side--salad fork, meat fork;
right side--soup spoon, meat knife (pointed, w/serrated
blade), dinner knife (wide spreading blade). Incidental
pieces include iced-tea spoons, tea spoons, and fish forks.
With dessert, miniature knives, forks and spoons; and
demitasse spoons to use with coffee. 12 serving pieces of
varying utility round out the ensemble. It sits in the
closet for years on end between outings.
Nancy J. Gill (njg...@ix.netcom.com)
Alameda, CA
"I am happy that Charles calls on my bedchamber less frequently
than of old...when I hear his steps outside my door, I lie down
on my bed, close my eyes, open my legs and think of England."
Lady Grace Hillingdon, _Journal_, 1912
Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters
hou...@ping.be_delete_this (houghi) wrote previously:
*}Just to go back to the original question. Is there a difference in
*}forks? I mean the meat fork normally has 4 pronges and the fish fork
*}3. Is this the case with your silverware as well?
Hmmm... it seems somehow germane to this thread to suggest the word
'tines'.
Yours, Lulu...
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Nancy J. Gill
hou...@ping.be_delete_this (houghi) wrote:
>Just to go back to the original question. Is there a difference in
>forks? I mean the meat fork normally has 4 pronges and the fish fork
>3. Is this the case with your silverware as well?
Oh, yes--these are traditional trident shaped fish
forks--three prongs, with the 2 outside ones curving
outward. My theory is that they are the more formal
equivalent of lobster picks--but I'm often wrong.