Types of cutlery

Most of the cutlery, if you list all their varieties, is used only at celebrations - and not always at home. In everyday life, we use only a small part of the existing cutlery. It seems that not everyone needs an educational program about the purpose of such "inventory"? Etiquette, the rules of good manners and everything that is included in the concept of a noble upbringing and refined manners, presupposes a broad knowledge of table setting, the appropriateness of using one or another dish. And it makes sense to start studying this section just from the cutlery.

Dessert, canteen, tea, fruit - you must have heard such words in relation to cutlery. Is there a difference in size? Not only. All this is divided into two types: basic devices and additional ones. In everyday life, the usual table set is enough for us, but in restaurants we are often served an additional one: dessert, fruit, and also fish utensils, etc.

General classification:

• table set - needed for the use of first and second courses, the most familiar combination for us;
• snack bar set - serves for the manipulation of cold dishes, as well as snacks;
• set of fish cutlery - used for handling hot fish dishes;
• set of dessert cutlery - needed to sample desserts (pies, puddings, mousses, caramelized fruits, etc.).

But even this is far from all types of table "inventory": there are also auxiliary (additional) ones. For example, you can serve a lemon fork to the table, if its use is implied. This is a fork with two sharp prongs, and is needed for delicately rearranging the lemon slices.Or, for example, there may be a fork for olives on the table - it was created for the beauty of their presentation.

And there are a lot of such special devices! Today, you rarely find a spoon in a salad (this is contrary to good taste), because there are tongs to apply salad from a common dish. As there are tongs, for example, and for spaghetti. Of course, very rare housewives keep the entire arsenal of cutlery at home - this is almost impossible. In addition, lobsters and snails are rarely eaten in the home kitchen. But to have beautiful pastry tongs, to acquire a spatula for pate and caviar, to have an elegant knife for cheese - why not? This flatters the modern mistress.

Cutlery differs in size, and sometimes at a dinner party, a dimensional discrepancy with the devices is considered a significant mistake for its organizers. The hostess simply did not know what the knife should be, and what the pastry tongs, for example, should be. But this can be learned!

Main dimensions.

• Meat knife - 21-24 cm. It is served together with a meat fork, it is served with wide plates.
• Meat fork - 19–21 cm. Suitable for hot appetizers, and also for spaghetti in a deep plate. If the dish is served in soup pots, such a fork is also needed.
• Large soup spoon - 19-21 centimeters. Comes with a meat fork. Can be used for first courses, and for the same sauce.
• Broth spoon - 16-17 centimeters. It is served in special bouillon cups.
• Sauce spoon - 18-19 centimeters, more often correlated with fish dishes with sauce.
• Fish fork - 18 centimeters, three-toothed. It is served along with a fish knife.
• Fish knife - 19-21 centimeters. Do not take it for salmon, eel, herring dishes.
• Dessert fork and dessert spoon - 18-19 centimeters.
• Butter knife - 17 centimeters.
• Cake fork - 15 centimeters.
• Coffee spoon - 13-15 centimeters.
• Ice cream spoon - 18 centimeters.

What should a hostess have so that her receptions always look convincing and do not contradict etiquette? If tradition is important to you, you need to learn to match. For example, special butter knife - this is not just a knife from a standard cutlery set, it is different. And if a guest cuts off a slice of butter and puts it in a pie, he should be able to do it with a special knife. And there is also, for example, knife-fork - they cut and shift cheese (hard) with it.

Imagine but there is also a special fork for sprats: fish forks differ not only from other forks, but also from each other. The rounded trident fork is used for mussels and shellfish, it is also used for taking out cold sea cocktails. Hot fish snacks are consumed with a chill fork.

The minimum set of additional devices:

• pasta tongs - this will allow you to serve pasta in a beautiful common dish, with tongs it is perfectly distributed in portions, and everything looks aesthetically pleasing;
• salad tongs - an alternative to special spoons, both can be present on the table;
• forks and knives for meat (for steak) - appropriate to size, beautiful, durable, with an ideal metallic luster (or, conversely, aristocratic dull, if that suggests color and texture);
• dessert - for a cake and for ice cream, completely different products are needed (for dessert, many different devices have been invented - for example, not only a spoon is served with tea, but also tongs for sugar cubes);
• snack forks - the guest should not eat snacks and main dishes with the same fork;
• fruit set - and this characteristic is not scanty, for example, there are even grape scissors that help to carefully cut it off the branch.

If you don't know where to start, start with a dessert set. When you've found the tools you need, invite your friends over for tea - akin to a self-test exam. By the way, make sure you know how to eat cake properly. Serve it to the table already cut into wedges. You need to eat on your own plate, starting with a pointed piece.

Continuing the topic of tea drinking, it is worth mentioning everything necessary for serving a cake. If the tea party ends with a dinner party, then all the dishes are preliminarily removed from the table. Dessert utensils are put in its place. The cake is brought out on a tray or vase on a leg. The vase can be with or without sides. The dish, as already mentioned, is pre-cut in portions. The only exception is a wedding, where the newlyweds cut the cake in the presence of guests.

You need to lay out dessert on plates pastry spatula. Although it belongs to auxiliary accessories, it is not at all secondary on the festive table. It is good if the scapula is in tune with the rest of the cutlery. It can be combined stylistically with a vase or with cups and saucers. And although cakes with a soft base can be eaten with both a dessert spoon and a fork, the second option is still more convenient.

The list of serving accessories can be short, and maybe long - depending on what goals the owners pursue, what level of receptions they organize. Restaurants should use all appliances suggested by the etiquette. At home, the system is simplified.

Accessory accessories by type of device.

• Spoons. In addition to the main spoons, you can stock up on a scoop spoon for sauces, a scoop spoon for granulated sugar. This also includes a scapula for caviar, an ice cream spoon.
• Forks. Serving a special fork for herring with two prongs, as well as a salad three-pronged fork will be effective. You can also stock up on a cocotte fork for a julienne - it is very elegant.
• Knives. In addition to the basic ones, you can expand the arsenal of devices with a knife for butter, cheese and for berries and fruits.
• Forceps... In addition to the tongs already mentioned above, you can get some tongs for ice, asparagus and lobster.

Of course, many begin to learn table etiquette from the plates. If you are sure that you already have different types of them, check to see if this list includes a serving plate, egg plate, rosette and bowl. Perhaps there is still work to be done.

Examples of proper serving are numerous thematic photos. Observe how the specialists cope with the serving, what design the cutlery can be, how they look on the common table.

For information on how to use cutlery correctly, see the next video.