Fun Facts from Larousse Gastronomique 1961

[noetic_toe]

FORK. Fourchette-A table utensil designed to pick up meat and other food. It is of very ancient origin as it is mentioned in the Old Testament, in Samuel, but it served first of all as a ritual instrument to grip pieces of meat destined for sacrifices; only later was it used in the kitchen. According to the eleventh century Italian scholar,

Comments

[ambermae]

I once read that the reason Americans hold their forks a different way from Europeans is related to the timing of the fork and the subsequent change in knife styles. It went something like this:

When the colonists came to America they continued to receive supplies from England. Initially, utensils were limited to spoons and pointed knives. Food was speared on the point of the knife. But as the fork was introduced to England it replaced the point of the knife for spearing food and knives became more rounded. Forks were still coming from Italy while knives were made in England, so the rounded forks made it to the New World before the forks. To compensate, colonists used their spoons to pick up the food they could no longer spear. By the time the fork came over American settlers were used to the scooping motion instead of the spearing motion, which is why we continue to use forks differently from Europeans today.

I read this in an book called In Small Things Forgotten by archaeologist James Deetz.

[ithryn]

Great, now there's two books I have to buy!!

[ithryn]

Aw, now I want that book. Is there a reason to prefer the 1961 edition?

[noetic_toe]

It is awesome. If you read French, then by all means get the updated French version. But if you are relegated to English then the 1961 translation is the preferred one. The later English editions were "targeted" to an American audience, so the French cuisine was watered down significantly-the later the edition, the farther from the original.

I highly recommend it. You should see the entry on "banquet". It goes on and on and on ...