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Discussion » Questions » Food and Drink » Why are there so few kinds of cutlery?
Stu Spelling Bee

Why are there so few kinds of cutlery?

With most aspects of food (e.g., styles of cooking, pans, dishes), you could fill a book with all the ways different cultures have come up with to do the same basic task. Not so with cutlery. For all the different worldwide cuisines, your choice is chopsticks or "Western" cutlery - knife, fork, spoon. What other options are there? Are these really the only two types of cutlery that mankind has invented?

Posted - January 18, 2018
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Responses


  • 5354
    1) fingers
    2) knife, fork, spoon, spork. (what we in the west call cutlery)
    3) toothpicks (for cocktail party food).
    4) chopsticks (eastern Asia).

    I think there is quite a lot of ways to put food into your mouth.

      January 18, 2018 12:06 PM MST
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  • 44622
    I don't know why they call forks and spoons 'cutlery'. Try cutting a steak with a spoon. (Well...one of mine you can.)
      January 18, 2018 4:19 PM MST
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  • 5835
    Here's another surprise: in any pattern of sterling tableware the weight of the set is equal to the number of pieces. A four piece place setting weighs four troy ounces, a five piece setting weighs five ounces, and a full set with serving pieces almost always averages one troy ounce per piece. That is because it takes that amount of metal to do the job.

    So the answer to your question is the same: There are only three functions to be performed: cutting, dipping, and picking up. Until about 400 AD the picking up was done with a thumb and finger, or the whole hand in some circles. The Romans of Byzantium got hoity toity and invented the fork for that.
      January 19, 2018 12:13 AM MST
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  • 5354

    Actually, All combinations of the 3 base forms exist.

    But I agree with Jewels Verne here, why would anyone want one, Imaging people souping up their sleeve when they turn the spife around to cut something. This post was edited by JakobA the unAmerican. at January 21, 2018 2:04 PM MST
      January 21, 2018 1:57 PM MST
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