Why is cutlery called cutlery

Museum des Deutschen Ordens, set of cutlery with a teaspoon. Vintage cutlery with decorations. A good sterling silver set would contained lettuce fork, a gravy ladle, mustard spoon, tea spoon, forks for dessert and many other items. French traveling set of cutlery from the 16th century. A collection of vintage cutlery.

Steel was used for making knives, and pewter was used for spoons. Of course these materials are far cheaper than silver and gold. Electroplated nickel silver was used as a cheaper substitute for silver and gold cutlery in the 19th century — it was for the mass market.

Harry Brearley, was a British metallurgist, and he discovered stainless steel in and it is what we mainly use for cutlery today. German National Museum in Nuremberg, cutlery with sharpening steel, 17thth century. It goes far beyond perfunctory needs. Through boundless research and discoveries of our ancestors, it is clear to historians that the first tools humans used for eating are ones that will still carry with us today: our hands.

In many cultures around the world, such as those in India, Africa and the Middle-East eating with your hands is still a part of everyday practice and there is something to be said for it. Not only is the act of scooping with fingers and thumb a natural instinct, but there are those who believe there to be some health benefit to it.

However, we are totally on board with the Ayurvedic logic behind sensory dining, which is why it is so important that the cutlery you do use is a joy to hold. When cutlery did come about, it was knives and spoons that appeared long before forks. By BC, iron knives had made an appearance and were being used as an instrument for eating, albeit with a less than pleasant effect on the flavour! A silver-plated brass candlestick is silverware.

And believe it or not, a silver plate is also silverware. Comparison : When you're sick, do you blow your nose with Kleenex or facial tissues? When you're hurt, do you put a Band-Aid on it or an adhesive bandage? The same way people use proprietary eponyms like Kleenex and Band-Aid, the word silverware is used.

Silverware got its name because silver was often used to make flatware. Long after humans evolved past using primitive tools fashioned from bone and stones, they began making more sophisticated utensils from wood, shells, and eventually metal, including bronze, iron, and steel.

When the Romans came along, they also started using silver for utensils. The ancient Phoenicians used silver vessels to keep water pure, and sailors used to throw silver coins into their milk to keep it from spoiling on long journeys before modern refrigeration.

This is because silver has oligodynamic properties, which means the metal ions kill living cells and organisms including mold, fungi, viruses, algae, and other microorganisms.

While this may sound like silver is kind of scary, what it actually means is that silver utensils are very hygienic and have antibacterial and disinfectant properties. You can imagine how useful this would have been before the advent of modern sanitation and indoor plumbing and why silver became such a popular material for utensils. Silver was and still is an expensive metal, and only the wealthy could afford wares that were fashioned from it.