Bread and Butter Plate Spreader and Bread Service
A bread and butter plate is to be placed above the tines of the place fork. It can be placed to the left of the last fork, with the top in approximate line with the plate space or tines of the place fork. It may be placed one inch up from the edge of a round table. The use of this plate is optional. A butter spreader can be placed horizontally across the top back of a bread and butter plate, handle pointed to the right, blade facing the edge of the table. It may be placed diagonally with the handle pointed to three o'clock. It could be placed to the right of this plate, in a vertical position parallel with the place fork. Note: both can be omitted from a truly formal place setting where butter is omitted and the unbuttered, roll, biscuit, muffin or bun, bread item may be laid directly on the tablecloth.
Bread may be served on a tray or in a basket before or almost as soon as people are seated at table. It can be placed onto the side of a bread and butter plate, or on a dinner plate using a pair of tongs. Each person could be required to take bread using his or her fingers. Bread can be pre-set at each place setting on a bread and butter (B&B) plate, or more formally on a charger plate underneath a folded napkin. Bread can be placed center a place setting underneath a folded napkin. At an informal meal, the bread item could be pre-buttered and placed directly on the tablecloth or placemat. This is not etiquette. However set, bread is not the first course.
Eating Bread and Butter
Bread is to be provided as a sign of hospitality and atmosphere. Bread is not the first course. A biscuit, bun, muffin, or roll is to be eaten after the main course is placed in front of you. Avoid spending your whole life eating bread, and butter, (or olive oil,) as a first course, if you would like an appetizer or a first course, order one.
Bread can be served on a plate, tray, or in a basket before or almost as soon as you are seated at table. Bread can be pre-set at each place setting on a bread and butter (B&B) plate, or more formally on a plate underneath a fancy folded napkin. It may be preset unbuttered on a tablecloth.
Bread can be placed on a bread and butter plate. It can be placed onto the side of a dinner plate using a pair of tongs, or taken up using fingers.
Untoasted bread, cold or hot, that is about to be eaten is to be broken apart/detached from a larger piece with the fingers as needed. Avoid ever cutting a roll with a knife. There is no knife for cutting the above. A butter spreader (or meat knife) is to be used to spread butter onto bread. The rest position for the butter spreader is diagonally across the top of the B&B plate, blade facing toward the edge of the table, and handle pointed to four o'clock. Then this small piece is placed in the mouth using your right hand. Repeat, bread is to be eaten, knife at rest, with the right hand. Avoid using bread as a test instrument to see which teeth are intact: showing teeth marks in the bread you are eating.
Butter in Dining
Butter is to be served in a butter crock set on a table without an underlying plate. It is one of three items allowed to be placed directly on a table that is not a glass or a plate.
A butter knife (with a point) is to be used to serve butter to a plate. Then the knife is to be placed across the top of the crock.
In informal service, each person can take butter from the serving dish with his or her butter spreader. A butter spreader is to be used only for the dressing of bread. It can be rested across the top of a bread and butter plate, blade parallel with the edge of the table or handle at four o'clock. It may be placed with the handle pointed to one o’clock. (Few do this.) Casually, butter can be spread onto bread with a clean place knife. Butter for vegetables is to be taken with a fork. Commercially, butter can be pre-set at each setting; bread may be served already buttered.
At a formal meal, butter is to be omitted, as well as the bread and butter plate, and the butter spreader.
Salt Rules
When there is a request to, “Pass the salt,” both the salt and pepper holders are to be provided. All passing is to be to the right. Each is to be set as a pair in front of each person in turn until reaching the requester. Reaching at table may now be preferred to asking someone to pass things one can take up.
Salt and pepper may be provided by using a salt cellar and a pepper pot. Open salts can be taken with a salt spoon, a clean knife, or with the fingers. Salt could be provided using individual holders or common holders.
1. Taste each food item before adding salt or pepper except for a baked potato, salad, celery, radishes, a boiled egg, or corn on the cob. Salt that is to be needed for dipping can be placed on the side of the place plate. Salt is to be used sparingly, especially when the cook/host or hostess is sitting at the table.
2. (Cayenne pepper may be the new salt.) It can add a kick to food and may be helpful in lowering high blood pressure. Pepper could be added to foods as you wish. It might have a hidden benefit of being helpful in digestion.
Eating Continental Style
1. Keep both of your hands on the table: wrists on or above the table edge, and your napkin on your lap. The place fork and knife are to be grasped handles in the palm of the left and right-hand, index fingers along the backs of both handles After the food item is cut, the knife is to remain in the right hand. Next, with the fork tines face down
1a. Load: impale or place the food item onto the back of the fork tines with the knife.
1b. Lock: bring the fork to the work area: bottom third of the plate. Hold it in place for an extended second or draw it to the side of the plate.
1c. Lift: turn the wrist in and upward and take the item to the mouth.
2. After the item is eaten the knife remains in the right-hand, unless it is placed in the rest position for it: knife handle pointed to four o'clock, blade facing you. The fork remains in the left-hand throughout the meal, unless it is placed in the rest position for it: fork handle at eight o’clock, tines over the knife blade.
3 You can take a hand rest often. The rest position allows you to take in conversation, to chew, to eat a piece of bread, and to blot your mouth with a corner of a napkin prior to taking a drink of water or wine.
4. For a non-main dish item, the knife is correctly used to push or to pull food onto the back of the fork and to press it down to one side. Then with the wrist turned up, the fork can be used to balance the food and take the item to be taken to the mouth.
5. The finished position for the fork is tines down, center the plate handle pointed to four o'clock. The finished position for the knife is to the right of the fork with the blade edge facing towards it. The fork can be placed tines down to the right side of the plate, handle pointed toward the edge of the table. The knife is to be placed to the right side of it, rested on the edge of the plate.
6. The fork or spoon, when used alone, is to be held in the right-hand tines or bowl up.
In the rest and the finished position, each is placed diagonally center the plate tines or bowl up handle pointed to four o'clock (in the ten-twenty position). In the finished position each can be placed to the right side of the plate, handles pointed to six o'clock.
7. Pace yourself. Caution – this style is quieter and more efficient. It can allow you to finish very fast. Take your time. “Can I take that for you?” can be code for, “You ate that way too fast.
8. You can eat in a style indicated by your host. You may also be very polished at it. You could use the American style of eating when one person is company avoids by reason of culture or religion eating with the left hand.
Cutting Meat Continental Style
When cutting meat Continental style
1. The place fork and knife are to be grasped handles in the palm of the left and right-hand, index fingers along the backs of both handles.
2. When a meat item is to be cut, the fork is picked up in the left hand. The tines are to be placed face down and are used to impale the item to be cut. The knife blade is to be set in front of the tip of the fork without touching it.
3. Let the cutting begin; to effect a cut the blade is pressed down on the item from the tip of the blade to score it: and then drawn toward the edge of the table with one or two strokes all in one direction. Then with pressure enough to cut the item, it is to be flexed away from any bone,
It can be scored and flexed away from the bone prior to completing the item separation. Cutting is to be done only in one direction. This process may be repeated as required, one or two pieces at a time.
Using Cutlery Eating USA Style
When eating in the “American Style”
1. The spoon when used is to be held in the right-hand bowl up.
It can be filled with the bowl facing away from the table. In the rest position, it is placed diagonally center the bowl or soup plate, bowl facing up, handle pointed to four o'clock, (in the ten-twenty position.) In the finished position it is to be placed to the right side of a soup plate handle to four o’clock or when used with a bowl the handle is to be placed on an underlying plate at six o'clock.
2. The fork when used is to be held in the right-hand tines up, handle pointed to four o'clock. It is to rest on the top knuckle of the middle finger and on the base knuckle of the index finger, held in place by the thumb rested on the face of the handle. In the finished position it is to be placed to the right side of a plate at handle at four o’clock or six o'clock.
The fork alone can be used to cut a food item apart. To cut an item a fork can be turned sideways with the face facing adjacent to the edge of the table. The index finger is placed along the side of the fork and pressed down with enough pressure to cut the item being parted.
It can be flexed right or left to complete the item separation. The fork is then righted and the item is impaled or picked up. The tines are filled, lifted, and held in place for an extended second or drawn to the side of the plate before the food item is taken to the mouth. The item is to be taken from the front of the fork. Avoid holding a fork standing up in any plate.
At table, a fork is to be used when putting butter on vegetables and jellies on meat. It can be used to move food items to the right third of the plate to store a portion to be cut later. It may be used to move items to the left of the plate to be discarded. Once used, the fork is to be placed in the rest position for it. Avoid resting it like an oar pair in a rowboat.
In the American Style of eating, bread is sometimes seen used to push food inconspicuously onto a fork. Avoid this practice.
The bottom of the fork tines can be used to move a food item to the work area of the plate and pressed down on the food item ever so gently; the item affixed to the bottom of the fork may be placed in the mouth.
A fork can be used in conjunction with a knife to cut a food item apart. To cut food with a knife and fork, the fork is to be held in the left-hand handle to palm, tines down, and the index finger extended along the back of it.
The fork in is to be used to impale and to hold in place the item to be cut. It can be used to secure and to move the item to the front third of the plate facing the edge of the table. This area is to be used to slice the item being cut.
3. The knife is to be grasped in the right-hand handle to palm, blade down, and the index finger extended along the back of it. The right thumb is to be stretched straight and is to rest on the inner side of the knife handle.
The blade is to be placed in front of the tines of the fork, without touching them. The knife is to be used for cutting the item apart one or two pieces at a time.
Let the cutting begin: the blade is to be pressed down on the item from the tip of the blade, with enough pressure to cut the item, and then drawn toward the edge of the table with one or two strokes all in one direction. It can be flexed towards the fork and any bone to complete the item separation. This process may be repeated as required. (Avoid sawing cooked food.) Cut one to two pieces at a time in only one direction.
If you cut more than one or two pieces at a time, someone may get you that bib and a Sippy cup, and have at hand a nappy change: a Huggie or depends, or think to and not tell you; “That’s how we feed the baby.”
4. Eating US American Style – after cutting the item apart, the knife is placed on the cut piece as the fork is withdrawn from it. Then it is placed in diagonally across the top right-hand part of the plate blade facing the table handle at two o’clock.
5. Avoid facing the blade away from the plate – as if you are going to strike someone. Avoid confusing a knife for an oar in a rowboat - or resting one like one.
6. Next, the fork is switched from the left-hand to right-hand, the left-hand is placed on the lap, and tines’ facing up the fork is to be used to,
Load: impale or pick up the food item onto the fork tines.
Lock: bring the fork to the work area: bottom third of the plate. Hold it in place for an extended second or draw it to the side of the plate.
Lift: turn the wrist in and upward and take the item to the mouth.
7. After the food item is eaten the fork is switched back to the left hand unless placed in the rest position. The rest position for the fork is the tines up center the plate, handle pointed to four o'clock. The rest position allows you to take in conversation, to chew, to tear off and eat a piece of bread, and/or to blot your mouth with a napkin prior to taking a drink of water or wine.
8. You can take a hand rest often. In this style, Keep one hand (usually your left) off the table: in your lap with a napkin. A hand in the lap without a napkin is suspect. The right wrist may be rested on the edge of the table.
When required, the knife can be picked up in the right-hand and the cutting process may be repeated as long as the item remains. The knife can be used to add butter to bread when a butter spreader has been omitted.
9. The finished position for the fork is placed center the plate tines up handle pointed to four o'clock or six o’clock.
The finished position for the knife is to the right of the fork with the blade edge facing towards it. The fork can be placed tines up to the right side of the plate, handle pointed toward the edge of the table at six o’clock. The knife is placed to the right side of it, rested on the edge of the plate. Avoid placing used flatware back on the table, where possible.
10. A plate fork and knife are to be used collectively--silently. As much as possible, avoid letting others hear the meal you are eating. If not required, flatware is to be left in the place in which it was set.
11. For dessert, a spoon takes the place of a knife and is used to cut an item. It is also used to eat the item. Class begins and ends with a spoon.
Note. In a private home, flatware that appears unclean can be used in silence. You could play, "Clumsy me," and say, "I dropped my (whatever.)"
The replacement item may be equally unclean. In a commercial dining room, you might ask the host or hostess for a replacement without additional comment.
And no, you cannot ask for and then clean your flatware with a lemon. What are you trying to say to others at your table; (avoid doing this at your own risk, or it’s OK for them to get sick? Stop it.) (You cannot sanitize flatware with a napkin anyway.)
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