Spoon

“ The spoon is older than history. There is, perhaps, no article or utensil of common use today that can trace an earlier origin. The evolution and development of the spoon into the graceful and beautiful forms in use on our tables is fascinating and instructive.
Primitive men of the Stone Age used an implement that might by courtesy be called a spoon. From then on down through the Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations it can be clearly traced in varying forms and substances—wood, shell, flint, bone, ivory, bronze and the precious metals, gold and silver. ”

“ MRS. SWEENY The adventures of the Gravy Spoon were of the simpler household variety, inexplicable, disconnected, yet following in a certain order a track familiar to all Irish householders. The gravy spoon was antique, slender of curve, and delicately ornamented along its graceful handle. Every servant connected with the spoon will now testify that the handle was cracked from the day it was made. One even asserts that "When ye'd strike it agin anything there'd be a roaring in it," which, of course, leaves no more to be said. ”

“ Food should not be conveyed to the mouth with a knife, but with a fork, always excepting soup, and such sauce as must be handled with a spoon.
Do teach your children not to thrust the point of the spoon into the mouth, but to take its contents with the lips from that part nearest the handle, without the least possible sound. Teach them not to lift the spoon so full that it will drip; and as your boy grows up into mustaches he will need to learn how to take soup and sauce without defiling those manly ornaments, or else to let soup alone at the banquet. ”

“ When quite cooked it was poured into a great wooden dish that was almost flat, and each workman drew near with his spoon in his hand. We were thinking what a pleasant scene this was going to be, and were about to regard it from afar like something on the stage, when to our utter amazement our friend the soup-maker, as simply, as naturally, with as much courtesy and kindness as ever a gentleman at his own table offered delicate viands to an honored guest, gave me a spoon and assigned me my place at the table. ”

“ Beating with a spoon, or beater of the spoon type, is a free over and over motion, the spoon being lifted from the mixture for the backward stroke. This is used for increasing the smoothness of the mixture after the first stirring, and for beating in air. ”

“ The wood being soft and dry and my knife sharp the spoon grew apace and her interest in it; and because it was for her (and she so full of pleased wonder) I elaborated upon it here and there until, having shaped it to my fancy, I drew my iron from the fire and with the glowing end, burned out the bowl, scraping away the charred wood until I had hollowed it sufficiently, and the spoon was finished. ”

“ One who inserts a milk spoon into a meat pot, or the opposite, we estimate based on is the total amount of what was inserted from it into the pot (if the spoon is ben yomo, that is, it was used in a vessel that was on the fire within the last 24 hours) . And there is one who says that a metal spoon, we measure based on all of [the spoon] , because when part of it gets warm, it all gets warm. ”

“ I have sometimes seen two persons eating from a dish and having but one spoon, which they used alternately, one fellow watching anxiously the other with greediness, and measuring with a hungry eye the size of his friend's spoonfuls. ”

“ The idea about the spoon and curry gravy is taken from the Mahâbhârata. In Bk. ii. 1945 we have: "He who is without understanding, but merely learned, learns not the sense of books, as a spoon does not taste the flavour of broth;" and in x. 178—"A brave man, if stupid, though he serves a learned man for a long time, does not know what is duty, as a spoon does not taste the flavour of broth, but an intelligent man who has nerved a learned man a short time only, soon knows his duty, as the tongue tastes the flavour of broth." ”

“ Sometimes they partook of the nature of spoons, the containing part being shallow, at the end of a long solid handle; the handle was carved into the most fanciful forms—a grotesque human figure, a woman, a fox, or a fish—and the spoon part was generally covered with a lid, which turned on a pivot. In one of those in the engraving, the spoon takes the form of a fish, the cover being carved to resemble its scales, while another, also in the form of a fish, has two cavities, the one covered, the other permanently open. ”

“ As the fork grew out of the chopstick, the spoon was probably suggested by the ladle, a form of implement employed alike by the baker and the cook; for the early tool which we see in the hands of the operative in the oven more nearly resembles in the bowl a spoon than a shovel. In India nowadays they have ladles, but not spoons. ”

“ It spoke of the spoon; lamented that, after all, there should be no soups at table, whereon it might have exhibited itself; and finally vowed, that it would visit the deficiences of the supper upon the dessert, even unto the third and fourth dish of Blanc-mange. The proprietor of the Mouth then laid down the spoon upon the table, there to lie in readiness, till such time as he should find knives and forks of no farther service—as the Scottish soldiery, in former times used to lay their shields upon the ground while making use of their spears. ”

“ Uses of a Wooden Spoon.—Never use any but a wooden or silver spoon to stir anything with in cooking. Many a dish is spoiled by the cook stirring it with an iron or metal spoon. Wood is the best when any acid, such as vinegar, is used in the ingredients to be stirred.
335. Boiling Vegetables.—Boil parsnips and such vegetables with thin skins; then peel when cold. The flavor is preserved and your hands are not stained.
336. To Wash Furniture.—Furniture washed with castile soap and tepid water and rubbed with a piece of old silk will look like new. ”

“ Set a pitcher of iced water in a convenient place in pantry or dining-room.
Arrange a tray with the after-dinner coffee-cups on it and the bowl of lump sugar and sugar tongs in the center. Put an after-dinner coffee spoon on each saucer. Have this in pantry.
(The only spoon that is ever put with the forks and knives by the plates on the table is the soup spoon. Teaspoons for grapefruit, for bouillon, tea, coffee, etc., are always put on the plate or saucer on which these foods and drinks are served.) ”

“ Measuring cups and spoons, a spoon for stirring, and a knife are, of course, essential in making confections. Then, too, it is often convenient to have a metal spatula and a wooden spoon or spatula. When these utensils are made of wood, they are light in weight and consequently excellent for stirring and beating. If egg whites are used in the preparation of a confection, an egg whip is needed. When candy must be poured into a pan to harden, any variety of pan may be used, but generally one having square corners is the most satisfactory. ”

“ Another Cantab, of precisely the same grade as to talent, who was second in the classical tripos of his year, gave a supper on the occasion of the spoon being awarded to him, which commenced with soup, each man being furnished with a [Pg 194] ponderous wooden spoon to lap it with. Another, now a Fellow of Trinity College, who more than once bore off the Porson prize, being in this place of honour, a wag nailed a large wooden spoon to his door. ”

“ Not only soup, but everything else eaten with a spoon should be sipped from its side when practicable, but then only. For any one to attempt to sip from the side of the spoon certain soups that are usually served nearly as thick as porridge—pea, bean, and tomato with rice, for example—is [40] absurd. Nothing has a more vulgar look than an obvious endeavor to be fine. The spoon should be filled by an outward rather than an inward movement, and the plate should never be tilted to get the last teaspoonful. If your soup is too hot, do not blow it, but wait till it cools. ”

“ You will sip your soup as quietly as possible from the side of the spoon, and you, of course, will not commit the vulgarity of blowing in it, or trying to cool it, after it is in your mouth, by drawing in an unusual quantity of air, for by so doing you would be sure to annoy, if you did not turn the stomach of the lady or gentleman next to you. ”

“ If there is one article of table service in which solidity of metal is of more importance than in another, it is the spoon, which must perforce come in Page 40 contact with the lips whenever it is used. In England the earliest spoons were of about the thirteenth century, and the first idea of a handle seems to have been a plain shaft ending in a ball or knob. ”

“ As each finishes with the first course, let her place a plate of smaller size generally used for tart or pudding before him, with a silver fork and spoon: in some families the spoon is not approved of, it is thought that even custard should be eaten with a silver fork; but the practice (or rather the attempt) is more refined than agreeable or convenient. ”

“ In the middle ages, the cook of a house of any note always seated himself in a high arm chair to give his orders; he held a long wooden spoon in his hand, with which he tasted, without quitting his place, the various dishes that were cooking on the stoves and in the saucepans, and which served him also as a weapon with which to chastise the idle and gluttonous. ”

“ A test that invariably proves successful consists in dipping up a spoonful of the juice and allowing it to run slowly from the spoon back into the pan. If, as shown in Fig. 9, a double row of drops forms on the spoon with the last of the jelly that remains, it may be known that the cooking is finished. ”

“ When preparing for a chafing dish supper, arrange the chafing dish on a tray, have the lamp filled, and matches at hand. A wooden spoon or regular chafing dish spoon and a wire whisk are convenient and really necessary utensils. It is well to have all the ingredients measured and neatly arranged on a tray. If butter is to be used, butter balls, each representing a tablespoon, are a convenient and attractive way in which to serve it. ”

“ A cupful means one half pint. A tin cup holding this amount is as necessary as a quart measure in every kitchen. They can be bought for ten cents apiece in any house-furnishing store. A spoonful of butter, lard, sugar, or flour means a rounding spoonful, as much rising above the spoon as is held in the bowl. A spoonful of salt or spices means only as much as the bowl holds, the top being smoothed off with a knife.77-* One half spoonful means the half of the contents of the bowl divided lengthwise. A heaping spoonful means as much as the spoon can be made to hold. ”

“ The stranger is not perhaps without a tremor of gastronomic emotion when the spoon used for at least three generations, probably for a period of over a century, in stirring the pudding is pointed out to him. ”

“ At the conclusion of our repast each man took his unique spoon formed of mussel shell and bamboo (the which I claim as my invention) and, raising it aloft, made a vow that said spoon should be preserved till the latest period of life as a sacred relic, so you may expect to see in my cabinet of curiosities when I get home the identical spoon with which I ate Clam Soup on the shores of the Pacific. ”

“ Only to gentlemen possessed of a luxuriant mustache is it permitted to take soup from the point of the spoon, always providing they can do so skilfully and without an awkward use of the arm. The gold or silver spoons for after-dinner coffee are very small, as befits the dainty cups of egg-shell china. ”

“ For instance, a plate in which meat is cooked is called a meat vessel, the knife with which it is cut is called a meat knife, the spoon with which one eats the soup that was cooked in a meat pot, though there is no meat in the soup, is a meat spoon, and to use that spoon for a milk thing is prohibited. ”

“ At home I never carve such a pudding with a spoon, but lightly cut the crust with a knife, cutting along the top instead of down, and laying a piece of crust upon each plate, taking the meat and gravy from the centre with a spoon, thus leaving the bottom until the last, which, if any remain, is excellent cold. ”

“ Use the salt-spoon, butter-knife, and sugar-tongs even when you are alone.
If you want to cough, sneeze, or blow your nose, leave the table. If you have not time, turn away your head, and lean back in your chair.
To pass a plate with a knife or fork upon it, or a cup with a spoon in it, are acts of rudeness. Put your spoon in the saucer, and your knife and fork on the table, until you are served.
Never hurry away from the table as soon as you finish eating, if others remain to converse. ”

“ She took a spoon from one vase, dipped it in the sweetmeats, and after eating placed her spoon in the empty vase. Then she took some water and drank a glass of cordial. So we each did (it is polite to taste but once) , and placed the soiled spoon in the vase for that purpose. I did not need to be told that the sweetmeats were rose-leaves, for the flavor was perfectly preserved. ”

“ In a lunch place where people are fed by hundreds, a spoon is thrust into a large number of mouths during the course of its career, and should it be indifferently cleaned, it would afford a playground for millions of germs, according to the experts who study such things. ”

“ The members squatting like tailors round the tray in a circle, take up the rice in lumps with their fingers, and dip it into the common bowl of curry, and pick out tit-bits from the other bowls as it suits their fancy. When soup or gravy is served, a common spoon is used; each takes a spoonful and then passes the spoon to his neighbour. ”

“ To fill up the measure of disgust, everything—meat, soup, vegetables, fricassees—must be eaten with a pewter spoon, without knife or fork, and had we not brought napkins along with us, some fragment of which still remain, the sleeves of our coats must have served for that purpose. ”