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Eating "right-handed" has always seemed irrational to me. It dates back to medeival eating traditions when folks only had a knife - therefore, it was held in t

Eating "right-handed" has always seemed irrational to me. It dates back to medeival eating traditions when folks only had a knife - therefore, it was held in the right hand as it was the primary and only implement. Fast forward to the present day, and the fork is the primary implement. Hence, to my mind, it makes significantly more aense to hold the fork in one's dominant hand.

Hoasi 8y ago
Exactly, the "right-handed" way always felt more natural for me (left-handed). Interesting how tradition beats logic though.
- Freak_NL 8y ago
  Hey, let us south-paws have this one societal convention that feels natural to us! Although to be honest, for gaming left-handed use of a mouse combined with the keyboard arrow keys for movement makes sense as well. None of these awkwardly aligned WASD-keys for us, just ↑←↓→ (conveniently marked with arrows already), and a bit of space around them so you don't accidentally lob a grenade when you step to the left.
  - Hoasi 8y ago
    > Hey, let us south-paws have this one societal convention that feels natural to us! Haha, sure, no complaints on this one. Not to mention plenty of other cases where left-handedness is an actual advantage (tennis, boxing, etc.)
indiandragon 8y ago
> Carl Sagan once hypothesized that the cultural link between left-handedness and badness arose due to the left hand’s use for hygiene purposes in nonindustrialized countries e.g In India, people eat with their right hand and clean shit with their left; both in bare hands along with water without any tools.
- coldtea 8y ago
  Hopefully with some hand washing involved in between...
  - southerndrift 8y ago
    How do you clean one hand without the other? If you don't have soap, wouldn't cleaning hands actually increase the risk of infections?
    - indiandragon 8y ago
      >If you don't have soap I don't think unavailability of soap posed higher risk than unavailability of the toilet by itself. I guess areas where soap/water is unavailable, they go 'Bear Grylls' of cleaning with leafs.
  - indiandragon 8y ago
    obviously yes, apparently general social consensus here seems it is hygienic than using paper to do the job. At-least middle class families & above have water faucet to go along with western model toilets; though the concept of using tissue paper for cleaning shit is still alien for majority here.
    - coldtea 8y ago
      >obviously yes, apparently general social consensus here seems it is hygienic than using paper to do the job Seems like "cleaning by hands" is a relic consensus from the eras of the unavailability of paper. Water I can understand.
- andai 8y ago
  And never the twain shall meet!
coldtea 8y ago
>Fast forward to the present day, and the fork is the primary implement. Hence, to my mind, it makes significantly more aense to hold the fork in one's dominant hand. Well, depending on the country, that's what we do. Even right handed people will switch the knife to the right hand to cut something and then get back to eating with the fork on the right hand. https://www.thekitchn.com/survey-using-your-knife-and-fork-166188 https://www.thekitchn.com/survey-using-your-knife-and-fork-1...
- tzs 8y ago
  I'm a right handed American, but apparently sort of use left handed European style--I hold the fork in the right hand and the knife in the left hand, and they stay that way for both cutting and conveying to mouth. I say sort of because that says European style is tines down, and Wikipedia tells me that tines down is used in that style even when using the fork to lift something that isn't impaled on the fork, whereas I do the sensible thing and flip to tines up for such tasks. I do not understand either American style or European style with the fork in the left hand, but maybe I don't eat anything that requires great knife dexterity to cut at the table, so putting and keeping the knife in the less dexterous hand seems the logical approach. Are there common foods that are sufficiently challenging to cut at the table that the knife needs to be in the dominant hand? The cutlery question that I want an answer to is why the heck do my steak knives have a sharp tip? I don't stab my steaks. I cut them, which would be fine with a rounded tip. The only stabbing my steak knives ever do is my hand, by accident, when I'm loading or unloading the dishwasher. PS: I was completely unable to recall or figure out what my knife and fork style was while reading this thread. I had to go to the kitchen and actually get a knife and fork, and actually go through the motions with them in hand to see what I did.
- kibwen 8y ago
  Weirdly, I'm American and I don't believe I've ever once noticed anyone bothering to switch the fork back to their right hand. Is it a regional thing? I'm in the Northeast and we seem to always have knife in the right, fork in the left (or reverse for lefties). I could also believe that I just haven't ever looked closely enough, I suppose.
tcmb 8y ago
My sister and me are both right-handed, but hold the knife in the left hand and the fork in the right. Our parents are also both right-handed but hold the knife in the right hand, so we didn't learn it from them.

Hoasi 8y ago

Exactly, the "right-handed" way always felt more natural for me (left-handed). Interesting how tradition beats logic though.

Freak_NL 8y ago
Hey, let us south-paws have this one societal convention that feels natural to us! Although to be honest, for gaming left-handed use of a mouse combined with the keyboard arrow keys for movement makes sense as well. None of these awkwardly aligned WASD-keys for us, just ↑←↓→ (conveniently marked with arrows already), and a bit of space around them so you don't accidentally lob a grenade when you step to the left.
- Hoasi 8y ago
  > Hey, let us south-paws have this one societal convention that feels natural to us! Haha, sure, no complaints on this one. Not to mention plenty of other cases where left-handedness is an actual advantage (tennis, boxing, etc.)

indiandragon 8y ago

> Carl Sagan once hypothesized that the cultural link between left-handedness and badness arose due to the left hand’s use for hygiene purposes in nonindustrialized countries e.g In India, people eat with their right hand and clean shit with their left; both in bare hands along with water without any tools.

coldtea 8y ago
Hopefully with some hand washing involved in between...
- southerndrift 8y ago
  How do you clean one hand without the other? If you don't have soap, wouldn't cleaning hands actually increase the risk of infections?
  - indiandragon 8y ago
    >If you don't have soap I don't think unavailability of soap posed higher risk than unavailability of the toilet by itself. I guess areas where soap/water is unavailable, they go 'Bear Grylls' of cleaning with leafs.
- indiandragon 8y ago
  obviously yes, apparently general social consensus here seems it is hygienic than using paper to do the job. At-least middle class families & above have water faucet to go along with western model toilets; though the concept of using tissue paper for cleaning shit is still alien for majority here.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >obviously yes, apparently general social consensus here seems it is hygienic than using paper to do the job Seems like "cleaning by hands" is a relic consensus from the eras of the unavailability of paper. Water I can understand.
andai 8y ago
And never the twain shall meet!

coldtea 8y ago

>Fast forward to the present day, and the fork is the primary implement. Hence, to my mind, it makes significantly more aense to hold the fork in one's dominant hand. Well, depending on the country, that's what we do. Even right handed people will switch the knife to the right hand to cut something and then get back to eating with the fork on the right hand. https://www.thekitchn.com/survey-using-your-knife-and-fork-166188 https://www.thekitchn.com/survey-using-your-knife-and-fork-1...

tzs 8y ago
I'm a right handed American, but apparently sort of use left handed European style--I hold the fork in the right hand and the knife in the left hand, and they stay that way for both cutting and conveying to mouth. I say sort of because that says European style is tines down, and Wikipedia tells me that tines down is used in that style even when using the fork to lift something that isn't impaled on the fork, whereas I do the sensible thing and flip to tines up for such tasks. I do not understand either American style or European style with the fork in the left hand, but maybe I don't eat anything that requires great knife dexterity to cut at the table, so putting and keeping the knife in the less dexterous hand seems the logical approach. Are there common foods that are sufficiently challenging to cut at the table that the knife needs to be in the dominant hand? The cutlery question that I want an answer to is why the heck do my steak knives have a sharp tip? I don't stab my steaks. I cut them, which would be fine with a rounded tip. The only stabbing my steak knives ever do is my hand, by accident, when I'm loading or unloading the dishwasher. PS: I was completely unable to recall or figure out what my knife and fork style was while reading this thread. I had to go to the kitchen and actually get a knife and fork, and actually go through the motions with them in hand to see what I did.
kibwen 8y ago
Weirdly, I'm American and I don't believe I've ever once noticed anyone bothering to switch the fork back to their right hand. Is it a regional thing? I'm in the Northeast and we seem to always have knife in the right, fork in the left (or reverse for lefties). I could also believe that I just haven't ever looked closely enough, I suppose.

tcmb 8y ago

My sister and me are both right-handed, but hold the knife in the left hand and the fork in the right. Our parents are also both right-handed but hold the knife in the right hand, so we didn't learn it from them.