Mar 05, 2022
The most effective way to keep messy fingers at bay while eating is to have a set of good utensils. But finding the perfect cutlery set requires more than looks alone…
Have you ever been to a fine dining restaurant or a party and got puzzled by the display of flatware in front of you? It’s that moment when you are unsure what utensil someone is using as they take a bite of their food at the dinner table and you can’t help but to copy and do the same.
Don’t worry! It’s understandable as some of these utensils look very similar, while others have a variety of names or functions that can be a bit overwhelming. We have all been there and experienced the struggle of learning it all.
To avoid that embarrassing moment of not knowing which is for which at a dinner party or at a fancy resto, here are eighteen types of cutlery you should know–whether you’re buying them or using them.
A dinner fork is used for regular meals. There are four tines in a dinner fork that are equal in length. It is the primary type of fork used when people eat meat. Also, this fork is usually large enough to be easily used for eating smaller portions of food such as vegetables. In your kitchen, you will want to have plenty of table forks since this is the silverware that will be used most often.
A dinner spoon is also known as a tablespoon. It has a round elongated bowl designed for eating everyday meals. It can easily scoop up a perfect amount of rice or stew. It’s usually paired with a dinner fork and a dinner knife. Like the dinner fork, this item is also very essential to have in your kitchen.
Typically, the dinner knife is the longest knife in a flatware set. It is used at all meals, both formal and informal, to cut food or push food around the plate. This knife is often included in the silverware sets with dinner spoons and forks.
A salad spoon and salad fork have an elongated shape for mixing salads and vegetables as well as making serving easier.
Serving forks and serving spoons are used together to serve food that requires two utensils, such as tossed salad, pasta, or a large food platter. Individually, the serving fork picks food from a platter, while the serving spoon lifts food from a bowl.
A soup spoon is a spoon with a large or rounded bowl used primarily for eating soup. It’s commonly found in formal settings and in Chinese, Korean, and other Asian dining.
A teaspoon is larger than a coffee spoon and it’s often oval-shaped. It is designed to stir tea, American-style or European-style coffee, and other beverages in larger coffee cups as well as scoop some sugar. A teaspoon is normally included in silverware sets at any store.
A steak knife is sharp and has a serrated edge to cut slabs of meat easily. A steak knife isn’t provided at formal meals if the meat is roasted, which can be easily cut with a regular dinner knife. You should be able to find a set that contains several different sizes of steak knives if you are looking for one that would improve your dining experience.
A fish fork allows you to debone and skin a fish in a served meal using the thinner tines and notch present in the fork. This fork also comes with a fish knife to further help you out.
A fruit fork is smaller than a dinner fork used to pick up a variety of fruits such as strawberries. Some fruit fork designs only have two times while others have the usual three tines. Whenever you are served fruit on a plate or a cup, you should use this fork.
The method of separating the rind from a fruit is made easier with a fruit spoon. A fruit spoon, also called the orange spoon, citrus spoon, or grapefruit spoon, looks almost like a teaspoon except that the spoon’s tip has serrated edges or a sharp edge.
In formal and informal dining, the fruit knife is used to chop and pare fresh fruit like apples. It has a pointed tip as well as a narrow, straight or slightly curved blade.
While any fork can be used to hold meat in place as a knife is used, many people prefer to use a carving fork. For those unaccustomed to fine dining, buying a carving fork might seem strange, but it’s actually quite handy when used at home to carve your favorite crispy pata or lechon.
The best way to enjoy a delicious treat is to have a few dessert forks in your silverware drawer. A dessert fork is also known as a pastry fork or pie fork. Smaller than a salad fork, this fork has two or four tines and its left tine, with a flattened edge, will be larger than the other times, so a person is able to hold a plate with their left hand while slicing through a pastry with the fork’s left side. In a formal setting, it is typically placed above your dinner plate, or brought out when dessert is served.
A dessert spoon measures between a dinner spoon and a teaspoon. Though people generally use a dessert spoon for cereal or soup, it’s actually used for desserts because the bowl is slightly longer than your typical oval bowl in a teaspoon. It is used in every formal table setting, where the spoon is placed either with your dessert or on top of it.
A dessert knife is smaller than a dinner knife, but is larger than a butter knife. It’s designed to have a narrow blade with a round or pointed tip to slice through desserts, cakes, or even fruits. Soft desserts like cakes are sliced with the rounded tip, and hard desserts like tarts are chopped with the pointed tip. A dessert knife is frequently used with a dessert spoon and fork which help in eating pastries or can be used to push desserts around.
This concludes our list! We hope that this article has shed some light on some of the more commonly used types. As mentioned earlier, this list is by no means comprehensive and you may find items not listed here that are also commonly used. With your newly acquired knowledge, you will be able to impress your date or your friends next time you eat at a dinner party or order food at a high-end restaurant. Now, it’s time to practice your table etiquette!
Shop at AllHome online for all your cutlery needs or visit a nearby AllHome store – we offer cash on delivery, fast delivery, and easy payment terms. You may also follow us on our official Facebook page, Instagram account and YouTube channel to be the first to receive our updates.
