Why do Americans only eat using their fork?

[conners]

Something a friend noticed and asked me

[jojojojoanne]

hi,
they are our 'cousins!'

[jno]

they don't. Their steaks are mighty tender but you can't quite cut them with a fork. Also, they have problems handling soup with a fork. So they use spoons and knives much as we do. Or fingers, when in McDonald's.

[stewey]

Conners is correct. There is a tendency in the States and Canada to use primarily the fork whilst eating; the knife is sort of delegated to the position of an occasional helper. People will use both to cut a piece of meat, put the knife down, place the fork in their dominant hand, and pick up the meat. The fork is used as a shovel most of the times. Why this is I don't know, but there it is.

[Scylax]

Seemingly, on this occasion, the Yanks have
got it right.

The fork is used like a scoop. And why not?
That is the shape of a fork. Only in polite
Britain do we have the affectation of trying to
eat peas, etc. from the back of the fork.

In polite society, in the UK, only those tasks
which are perceived to be difficult are regarded
as moral and 'correct'. If they are not, we make
them so.

Hence, we never tuck out napkins into our collars.
We scoop our soup with the front edge of the
spoon, and sip it from the back. Our table knives
must remain blunt, lest we are accused of using
an efficient tool wherewith to cut up our food.

We English do everything the hard way, and before
you ask : standing up in a hammock .

[spudqueen]

So does Mr Spudqueen!

[littleoldme]

Eat peas from the back of a fork? Sip soup from the back of a spoon (presumably you mean the part of the 'bowl' next to the handle, rather than the actual back of it - that really would be hard)? S0d that.

Gosh, I say. One never realised one was so crashingly vulgar. Next you'll be telling one that raising one buttock when at the dinner table, giving a brief toot on the bum trumpet, and crying "Wahey! That's the one!" isn't the way to show appreciation to the chef either. Golly.

[Clanad]

Actually, we don't use just the fork, most of us have four fingers and a thumb on the empty hand...

[Lonnie]

My method of eating, is to cut the meat into pieces, that way I use one hand to eat with (fork or spoon), and the other to hold the newspaper, much more civilised.

[carolegif]

The correct answer is that cowboys needed their knives to protect themselves whilst camping out in the open, so they cut their food up into small pieces so that it could be eaten with a fork whilst leaving the knife as a weapon on defence,

carolegif

[Bellringer]

I always thought it was a throw back to childhood when Mothers used to cut up the food for the children and then they ate just using the fork. I have noticed that they cut all the food into bite sized pieces then discard the knife. Maybe we are all somewhat ambi-dextrious and they aren't. I do know that they are fascinated by us doing "that knife and fork thing" as my daughter-in-law calls it.
Y'all come back now.

[salsadancer]

Because they weren't brought up properly in England.

[stewey]

Is that why they forked off to America?

[ethandron]

no, it's just a sign of the tines.