Stray Thoughts 2.0

[Just Cooking]

I'm obviously having a slow day...



Putting away the washed forks and spoons this morning, it dawned on me that I just don't use the butter knives...


I use all the other knives and spreaders in my kitchen but never seem to pick up a butter knife... hmmm


Do y'all use your butter knives??



Ross

 

[Andy M.]

Just to be clear. We’re talking butter knives not table knives. There’s a lot of confusion in my home between the two.

 

[roadfix]

We have butter knives but I find them too short and cumbersome to use. They're pretty to look at though... Easier to just use regulation dinner knives.

 

[Just Cooking]

Just to be clear. We’re talking butter knives not table knives. There’s a lot of confusion in my home between the two.

Oh boy.. I have always called the knives which comes with a set of tableware butter knives. Ross

 

[Cheryl J]

I call them 'butter knives' as well Ross, as opposed to steak knives. I use both often.

I have little short decorative butter knives, but I never use them. They were my mom's, so I want to keep them.

 

[Andy M.]

I call this a butter knife:



I call this a table knife (this one comes with every place setting of tableware):

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I have a set of butter knives, as Andy posted above. I have many relatives that have an aversion to using the same knife others have handled. They are also freaky about family style dinners...

 

[Cheryl J]

After my mom passed away, I went through kitchen drawers and packed away what I thought I wouldn't be using very often, but still wanted to keep. The small little butter knives got packed away, same with the long 2-tined 'pickle forks'. I don't have room to store everything in my kitchen drawers and when the grandkids are here helping in the kitchen, it's easier to tell them to grab a 'butter' knife (what we call them), or a steak knife.

Flatware is all in one drawer now and it's a lot easier to manage.

 

[GotGarlic]

I can't remember the last time I put out butter knives. They're part of my set of company flatware in the hutch in the dining room. I also have small individual salt & pepper shakers. They were nice to use when we used to have dinner parties, so people had everything they needed and didn't have to interrupt conversations to ask for something to be passed.

We use the table knives unless something needs the sharpness of the steak knives.

Cheryl, we always called those seafood forks

 

[Mad Cook]

I'm obviously having a slow day...



Putting away the washed forks and spoons this morning, it dawned on me that I just don't use the butter knives...


I use all the other knives and spreaders in my kitchen but never seem to pick up a butter knife... hmmm


Do y'all use your butter knives??



Ross

Yes, for spreading butter - Ok, so I don't care if I have a heart attack! Useful for spreading pate and similar spreads as well. As well as the usual kitchen butter knives, I have a eight that came in a set of cutlery. I use those for "best".

I also have soup spoons and use them all the time (guess when - when I have soup )

I have my Mother's (real) silver cutlery set but I don't use it because it's a fag to clean.

(Oops, I think I used a rude word there - it means something different on this side of the pond!)

 

[Just Cooking]

I call this a butter knife:

View attachment 31655

I call this a table knife (this one comes with every place setting of tableware):

View attachment 31656

Table knife is what I was referring to. I haven't had
actual butter knives since my first wife passed away. I just call them that.

We set the table, for us, with a fork and a steak knife. Very informal we are in our old age.

Ross

 

[Mad Cook]

Stray Thought...

How do you know when it's time to no longer drive any motorized vehicles?

Where we live, here in the middle of the desert, we see many, many older snow-birds on the road who REALLY shouldn't be.

I am exceedingly grateful that my own Mother knew that when we all moved here to the 'mainland' that she should not attempt to drive here.

In the UK we have to renew our driving licence at 70 years old (us, not the licence) and then every three years after that. My turn next February. Under some circumstances you have to have a certificate from your Doctor.

Crumbs, I've just worked it out - by my next birthday I'll have been driving for 53 years!!

 

[Andy M.]

Table knife is what I was referring to. I haven't had

actual butter knives since my first wife passed away. I just call them that.



We set the table, for us, with a fork and a steak knife. Very informal we are in our old age.



Ross

To answer your original question, we use table knives unless sharper knives such as a steak knife is called for. A good table
knife is all you need for most meats other than beef.

 

[taxlady]

To answer your original question, we use table knives unless sharper knives such as a steak knife is called for. A good table
knife is all you need for most meats other than beef.

Hmm, we have steak knives, but don't always bother, even for steak. Our regular dinner knives, while not serrated, are sharp enough for most steaks. The knives in the set of actual silverware are too.

 

[dragnlaw]

The following is my take on Butter Knives:
Butter knives are not generally used in homes now-a-days. They were mostly used when you had Bread and Butter Plates at a formally set table. They are short and sorta' rounded squat in the blade.

Not to be confused with a Butter Serving Knife. This knife often had a pointed end (but not sharp)(mine don't) and almost always had a 'kink' between blade and handle. Used exclusively for transferring a pat of butter from the Butter Dish to your Bread & Butter Plate.

You never used your butter knife to the butter plate. By the same token, you never used the serving butter knife to put the butter on your bread buns.

More likely use for 'butter knives' now are at parties and used for cheese spreads and such. Often themed to a season or use. Cheese knives themselves are generally with a curved blade, sharp and with a fork on the end to spear and serve the cheese.

Then there are the Dinner Kknives and Steak Knives. This is all I have, there are sure to be others that I haven't thought or know of

 

[dragnlaw]

In the UK we have to renew our driving licence at 70 years old (us, not the licence) and then every three years after that. My turn next February. Under some circumstances you have to have a certificate from your Doctor.

Ontario has the same rule, not sure about Quebec (ha! where I live!). But the system can still be fooled. My father should never have passed his last test, but being a "test" he could concentrate and never err. We were flabbergasted when he passed. None of us would drive with him - he would stop in the middle of an extremely busy or dangerous intersection to ponder which route to take.

We took to hiding the keys. I pray I will recognize my time.

 

[roadfix]

My wife has a small collection of those short, decorative, stubby handled butter knives. Like I said, we never use them.

 

[roadfix]

None of us would drive with him - he would stop in the middle of an extremely busy or dangerous intersection to ponder which route to take.

We took to hiding the keys.

I took (and claimed) his 2013 Prius. That was more than a year ago when he was still driving at 92. A few months earlier he mistook the gas pedal for the brake pedal, no one got hurt, just a minor dent to the car.
The scary part is he renewed his license by mail again, as that's his ID, whether he drives or not.

 

[Kayelle]

We call the long ones table knives. Interesting knife collection you have there Dragn.
I also don't like to use the short salad forks that came with the set unless I'm setting a company table with salad plates. Those little forks just don't do it for me.

 

[roadfix]

Our grandkids use salad forks for dinner. They're proportionately sized for their smaller hands.