Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat
Bee Wilson
Language: English
Pages: 352
ISBN: 0465056970
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
home. It was said that when stoves were first introduced in the United States in the 1830s, they inspired feelings of hatred: stoves might be an acceptable way to heat a public place such as a barroom or courthouse, but not a home. In time, most people got over their repugnance. The “model cookstove” became one of the great consumer status symbols of the Industrial Age, and homes developed a new focus. The typical Victorian cookstove was a cast-iron “monster” that combined a hot-water tank for
pan, but this could be converted to the unventilated heat of an oven by closing the valves at the back. The Leamington could also supply gallons of boiling water. A range was never just designed to cook food; it was needed to provide hot water for the whole household, to heat up irons and warm hands. “Leamington” was one of the first pieces of equipment to become a household name in Britain and was soon being used as shorthand for closed ranges in general. But there were plenty of competing
window of forgiveness has passed. You are now expected to know how to wield your chopsticks dexterously To fail to do so would be taken as a sign of bad parenting. The earliest pair of surviving chopsticks are bronze, from the Ruins of Yin and dated around 1200 BC, so we know that they have been in use for at least 3,000 years. But it was only from around the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) that they became the universal method of eating all over China. The rich had chopsticks made of bronze, ivory,
For true politeness, in most cultures where food is handheld, only the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger are used. (As with the various knife-and-fork rules, there are exceptions. Couscous, because it is so fragmented, may be eaten with all five fingers.) Food should not be grabbed precipitously from the common dish. It is also very rude to anticipate the next bite before you have finished the first, which is not the rule among knife-and-fork eaters. As for the question of whether
“cut round the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer.” The first custom-made can opener was designed by Robert Yeates, a maker of surgical instruments and cutlery, in 1855: it was a vicious clawlike lever attached to a wooden handle. The idea was to gouge the lever into the top of the can and then forcefully cut around, leaving a jagged edge. It did the job—but not well. The history of can openers is riddled with unsatisfactory designs: the Warner, much used during the American Civil