The fish knife together with fish fork represent a set of utensils specialized for eating fish. A fish knife is a strange-looking, purposely blunt implement. [1]
The fish knife together with fish fork represent a set of utensils specialized for eating fish. A fish knife is a strange-looking, purposely blunt implement. [1]
Fish knives, like most highly specialized utensils, date back to Victorian era. The fish knife was preceded in the 18th century by a silver fish slice (also known as fish trowel, fish carver, and fish knife [2] ), [1] a broad tool used for serving fish (thus yet another name, fish server), pudding, [3] and other soft desserts. At the turn of the 19th century, the originally symmetric and broad blade of the fish slice evolved into a scimitar-like shape, with the knife often marketed as a matched set with a four-tine serving fork. [4]
Prior to the modern fish knife introduction in the 19th century, aristocracy ate fish with two dinner forks, one to separate a piece, another one to eat. The other approach used a single fork, with a slice of bread for assistance. [5] Use of the knife came from the rich commoners, with high society at first frowning upon it as a too specialized tool (and the one they were also missing in their hereditary silverware sets). [6] In the 21st century, Queen Camilla, according to The Times of London, "wouldn’t be seen dead using a fish knife." Etiquette expert William Hanson, quoted in The Times, says the vast Buckingham Palace cutlery collection does not have a single fish knife, partly because it's "seen as down-market," and partly because "Buckingham Palace’s cutlery goes back to Georgian times and fish knives had not been invented then so they don’t have them by default." [7]
Use of silver as a material for the knife was the only available mean (before the arrival of the stainless steel) to enable pairing of lemon and fish without encountering a metallic taste. [8]
The knife has a distinct shape that evolved from a fish server. The modern knives are about 8 to 9 inches long, have a dull blade and frequently a notch close to the sharp tip that can be used to separate the bones from the flesh of the fish. [6]
The fish knife is not designed for cutting. Since for fish no force is required to separate the flesh from the bones, the knife is supposed to be held between the thumb and two first fingers (like a pencil [9] ) and used to fillet the fish, lift the skeleton, and remove the small remaining bones. [10] If the fish is served already without bones, knife is either used to "flake" the pieces onto the fork, or its use can be avoided altogether ("American style"). [9]
Fish knives and forks were originally very expensive silverware items, so having them, or, in case of aristocracy, consciously avoiding their use, became a class marker, [7] a status symbol used to indicate the user or owner's elite status. [8] After the invention of electroplating, knife and fork sets became more affordable by the 1860s, but the possession of them still indicated belonging to the "comfortable" middle class. [1] By the middle of the 20th century the nice fish knife and fork sets became a symbol for upper-class aspirations of a household. John Betjeman starts his poem "How to get on in society" (1958) with a pursuit of fish knives as a symbol of pretensions (Phone for the fish knives ... I must have things daintily served). [11] Princess Margaret’s former lady-in-waiting, Anne Glenconner, was present when Queen Camilla, upon being offered a fish knife in a restaurant, recited the Betjeman poem and rejected the fish knife. [7]
In the 21st century use of the fish knives at a restaurant is also seen by some as a symbol of high aspirations (perhaps, for a Michelin star). [12]
A spoon is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl, oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery, especially as part of a place setting, it is used primarily for transferring food to the mouth (eating). Spoons are also used in food preparation to measure, mix, stir and toss ingredients and for serving food. Present day spoons are made from metal, wood, porcelain or plastic. There are many different types of spoons made from different materials by different cultures for different purposes and food.
In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to hold them to cut with a knife or to lift them to the mouth.
Cutlery includes any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in Western culture. A person who makes or sells cutlery is called a cutler. While most cutlers were historically men, women could be cutlers too; Agnes Cotiller was working as a cutler in London in 1346, and training a woman apprentice, known as Juseana.
Table setting or place setting refers to the way to set a table with tableware—such as eating utensils and for serving and eating. The arrangement for a single diner is called a place setting. It is also the layout in which the utensils and ornaments are positioned. The practice of dictating the precise arrangement of tableware has varied across cultures and historical periods.
A Japanese kitchen knife is a type of kitchen knife used for food preparation. These knives come in many different varieties and are often made using traditional Japanese blacksmithing techniques. They can be made from stainless steel, or hagane, which is the same kind of steel used to make Japanese swords. Most knives are referred to as hōchō or the variation -bōchō in compound words but can have other names including -kiri. There are four general categories used to distinguish the Japanese knife designs: handle, blade grind, steel, and construction.
Nakiri bōchō and usuba bōchō are Japanese-style vegetable knives. They differ from the deba bōchō in their shape, as they have a straight blade edge suitable for cutting all the way to the cutting board without the need for a horizontal pull or push. These knives are also much thinner. While the deba is a thick blade for easy cutting through thin bones, the blade is not suitable for chopping vegetables, as the thicker blade can break the vegetable slice. The nakiri and the usuba have much thinner blades. This does not help with cutting small bones in fish or meat, but is useful for cutting vegetables.
Yanagi-ba-bōchō, Yanagiba, or yanagi, is a long and thin knife used in the Japanese cuisine. It is the typical example of the sashimibōchō used to slice fish for sashimi and nigirizushi.
A magurobōchō, or magurokiribōchō, is an extremely long, highly specialized Japanese knife that is commonly used to fillet tuna, as well as many other types of large ocean fish.
Sashimi bōchō, literally "sashimi knife" is a type of long, thin kitchen knife used in Japanese cuisine to prepare sashimi. Types of sashimi bōchō include tako hiki, yanagi ba, and fugu hiki, respectviely.
Kitchenware refers to the tools, utensils, appliances, dishes, and cookware used in food preparation and the serving of food. Kitchenware can also be used to hold or store food before or after preparation.
Tableware items are the dishware and utensils used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. The term includes cutlery, glassware, serving dishes, serving utensils, and other items used for practical as well as decorative purposes. The quality, nature, variety and number of objects varies according to culture, religion, number of diners, cuisine and occasion. For example, Middle Eastern, Indian or Polynesian food culture and cuisine sometimes limits tableware to serving dishes, using bread or leaves as individual plates, and not infrequently without use of cutlery. Special occasions are usually reflected in higher quality tableware.
A kitchen knife is any knife that is intended to be used in food preparation. While much of this work can be accomplished with a few general-purpose knives – notably a large chef's knife, a tough cleaver, a small paring knife and some sort of serrated blade – there are also many specialized knives that are designed for specific tasks. Kitchen knives can be made from several different materials.
Table manners are the rules of etiquette used while eating and drinking together, which may also include the use of utensils. Different cultures observe different rules for table manners. Each family or group sets its own standards for how strictly these rules are to be followed.
A cleaver is a large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a rectangular-bladed hatchet. It is largely used as a kitchen or butcher knife and is mostly intended for splitting up large pieces of soft bones and slashing through thick pieces of meat. The knife's broad side can also be used for crushing in food preparation and can also be used to scoop up chopped items.
W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company is an American manufacturer of traditional pocket knives, fixed blades/sporting knives, kitchen knives, limited edition commemoratives and collectibles. The company originated in Little Valley, New York, around the turn of the 20th century, before relocating to its current home, Bradford, Pennsylvania, in 1905. The company's namesake, William Russell Case, first made knives with his brothers under the name Case Brothers Cutlery Company. His son, John Russell ("Russ") Case, worked as a salesman for his father's company before founding W.R. Case & Sons.
A cheese knife is a type of kitchen knife specialized for the cutting of cheese. Different cheeses require different knives, according primarily to hardness. There are also a number of other kitchen tools designed for cutting or slicing cheese, especially the harder types. These include the cheese cutter, cheese slicer, cheese plane, cheese scoop for soft cheese and others, collectively known as cheese servers.
A fish slice is a kitchen utensil with a wide, flat blade with holes in it, used for lifting and turning food while cooking. It may be called a slotted spatula or a turner or flipper. The utensil was originally designed as a serving piece rather than a cooking implement.
The lemon fork is a small serving utensil that is used to move lemon slices. Lemon forks have three long tines, with the outside tines splayed; ostensibly this arrangement helps to release more juice. Lemon forks became popular in the last quarter of the 19th century alongside other specialized utensils, such as asparagus tongs. One early 20th century cookbook called the lemon fork a "necessity" at the five o'clock tea party. While setting the table, the fork was placed over the slice of lemon. Unlike many specialized utensils of the 19th century, lemon forks are still used in the 21st century, primarily in restaurants.
The fish fork, sometimes along with the fish knife, is an eating utensil specialized for fish meals. Like most highly specialized utensils, the fork dates back to Victorian era. With a length of about 7.5 inches, its distinctive features often include a wide left tine or a deep notch that can be fit over the bones. To avoid the metallic taste that comes from metal in the fork reacting with the acid in lemons, which are commonly served with fish, the fork was traditionally, until the arrival of stainless steel in the 1920s, made of silver.