What is cutlery called?

Some items have become so firmly established in everyday life that a person can no longer do without them. For example, cutlery. We use only a small part of them every day. Meanwhile, these are not just tools with which we eat. They can be divided into two large groups: main and auxiliary. Each includes a certain set of items that are useful for all of us to know.

What about cutlery?

For everyday breakfasts, lunches and dinners, we use basic tools. They are found in every home and are laid out on the table according to the number of participants in the meal.

However, all basic devices can be divided into five types:

1. Dining rooms – tools for hot dishes (first and second). They are the largest in size (relative to other devices in the main group) and are used most often. These include a knife (usually its size is 24-25 cm), a fork and a spoon (these items may be slightly shorter).
2. Fish. This is a fork and knife. They are shorter than the first ones, but are also often used. At the same time, the fork has short teeth, and the knife has a wide and blunt blade. Thanks to these tools, you can easily cut hot fish and separate the flesh from the bones.
3. Snack bars. Small in size but useful items. They are placed at the farthest distance from the plate and used first. Snack utensils include a fork and a small knife.
4. Dessert. They are used last.These include a fork (it has three prongs), a knife (with a sharp and narrow blade) and a spoon. These devices are needed not only for sweet dishes. They are used for cereals, pies, milkshakes, and fruits. Dessert tools are placed above the plate.
5. Food sticks. These tools are the main ones for setting the table in Asian countries. Chopsticks are necessary when serving Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese dishes. An important feature: if the table is not set in Asia, and the participants in the meal will be Europeans, then traditional forks and knives should also be laid out on the table (in case one of the guests does not want to use chopsticks).

In addition to the main ones, there are auxiliary cutlery. There are many more of them, but they are used less often. Often these tools are intended for “collective” use, that is, with their help, a dish is transferred from a common plate to a portioned one.

The most popular auxiliary tools are:

1. Lemon knife and fork. The names speak for themselves. With these tools you can either cut off a portioned piece of lemon or transfer it to a separate plate.
2. Curved, with a wide and blunt blade butter knife. It is convenient for them not only to cut off portioned pieces of butter, but also to spread them on bread.
3. Cheese cutting knife sickle-shaped with small teeth on the blade.
4. Sprat fork. It looks very unusual: the teeth of this tool are wide and connected by a special bridge.
5. Salad spoon (larger than a regular dining room, but very similar to it).
6. Ladle. Designed for liquid dishes.

Important! A separate category of auxiliary instruments are forceps and spatulas. There are many of them, but only a small part is used in everyday life.Thus, the most popular are large and small tongs (the first for hot dishes, the second for single-piece desserts), rectangular and shaped spatulas for baked goods, cutlets and meat. Also frequent guests of the table are tools for crushing ice and nutcrackers.

In addition, there are cutlery that are used when serving very exotic dishes: lobster (special needle), mussels, oysters (fork with one large and two small tines), shrimp and crabs (long utensil with two tines).

Unusual names of cutlery

As a rule, by the name of the device you can understand for what purposes it is intended. But experienced housewives know tools whose names are very specific. Having heard them, a person who is far from table setting and etiquette rules will not understand at all what they are talking about until he sees the device or its photo with his own eyes.

Among these are:

1. Spending fork. This is a large device with a thick handle and two sharp teeth. Designed for serving portioned pieces into individual plates. This tool is also used for cutting meat and fish dishes.
2. Chill fork. It has three blunt teeth designed for cutting hot fish dishes.
3. Double-horn an unusual fork with wide tines for herring.

The variety of cutlery is amazing. Some of them will take time to learn how to use. However, the opportunity to make a strong impression of a gallant person in any situation is worth it. Therefore, you need to know what cutlery there are and how to use them, at least in theory.