Do you know that from eating pilaf to using knives and forks is the evolutionary history of European table civilization?

When it comes to European western food, especially dinner, people often think of all kinds of complicated table manners, knives, forks and glasses of different sizes, shapes and uses. Dressed up, men and women sit alternately, whispering and talking elegantly.

In Downton Abbey, the elegant dinner of the British earl family.

In fact, the so-called traditional European table manners and dining tools have a short history. /kloc-before the 0/7th century, most Europeans, including nobles, disdained to eat with special knives and forks, especially men, who always thought it belonged to a kind of? Sissy? Lifestyle, very dull.

As early as the ancient Greek and Roman times, regardless of princes and nobles, ordinary people or slaves at the bottom, their hands were all their own? Eating tools? . For example, when there were the most nobles in Rome? Tide? The best way to eat is to lie on the bed beautifully and grab food directly with your hands.

Eat while lying down? Have a meal? Belong to a status symbol

However, at this time, even if everyone eats pilaf, why? Catch? , but also to distinguish identity.

When eating with fingers, the common people in Rome put five fingers together, while the educated nobles only use three fingers, and the ring finger and the little finger can't touch the food. Moreover, fingers stained with juice cannot be licked or rubbed directly on clothes like civilians, but should be wiped with special cloth under the service of slaves. This cloth can be regarded as an early napkin.

Moreover, the above-mentioned dining rules based on the number of fingers did not become history with the demise of the Roman Empire, but continued until the17th century, when Europeans gradually accepted forks and used them as daily tableware.

Eating in long Europe? Have a meal? In the new era, spoons and knives appear very early as eating tools, but forks are used much later.

After all, under the climatic conditions in Europe, animal husbandry is easier to develop than agriculture. Therefore, the dietary characteristics of their high proportion of animal products also determine the important position of knives in the dining process.

In addition, the quality of the staple food of ordinary Europeans is too poor. Those black bread always mixed with wheat bran and sand are as hard as bricks and especially dry. When you eat, you can only break off a piece and then dip it in some soup to make the bread soft. In the process of tearing, we should also pay attention to picking out pebbles and other impurities to avoid biting teeth.