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I guess I've been using the wrong terminology because I refer them as butter spreader and butter knife, but I should be calling it a table knife? We use table knives daily, esp. now that we are home full time. Butter spreaders, I put out when I have company for butter, cream cheese or other soft cheeses if I'm serving that. Otherwise, I don't use them at all.
I'd forgotten about the "dress up" offset handle or otherwise unique butter knives! My goodness, I can't remember using one of those for over thirty years!
I should have qualified to the broad flat table knives commonly used for butter and just about worthless for cutting anything more solid than a sandwich. Those just sit in my flatware drawer pleading for a bit of daylight.
I use them for cutting anything other than a steak or a porkchop. Chicken, veggies, anything that's cooked and needs cutting on the plate.
I'd forgotten about the "dress up" offset handle or otherwise unique butter knives! My goodness, I can't remember using one of those for over thirty years!
I should have qualified to the broad flat table knives commonly used for butter and just about worthless for cutting anything more solid than a sandwich. Those just sit in my flatware drawer pleading for a bit of daylight.
Interestingly, my table knives have a lightly serrated edge, and they cut meat and poultry very well so that I have never had steak knives. We’ve never needed them.
I guess I've been using the wrong terminology because I refer them as butter spreader and butter knife, but I should be calling it a table knife? We use table knives daily, esp. now that we are home full time. Butter spreaders, I put out when I have company for butter, cream cheese or other soft cheeses if I'm serving that. Otherwise, I don't use them at all.
Case knives are the things at each place setting.
Butter knives are the (rarely used for most people) things that you have one of and use it to spread butter (unless, of course, you just use your case knife to do that).
Interestingly, my table knives have a lightly serrated edge, and they cut meat and poultry very well so that I have never had steak knives. We’ve never needed them.
Ours do, too. I wouldn't have steak knives to this day if my in-laws hadn't given us some. We use them exclusively for steak, which means about once a month, maybe. The slightly serrated table knives are fine for everything else.
Butter knives are the (rarely used for most people) things that you have one of and use it to spread butter (unless, of course, you just use your case knife to do that).
I guess no one calls them "case knives" any more? In my house there are several different kinds of knives in the kitchen:
Butcher knife
Chef knife
Paring knife
and for the table
Case knife (this is the one that's not sharp and you set beside each person's plate)
Butter knife (I'm sure I own one but haven't seen it in years, always use a case knife)
Steak knife (sharp, for meat, otherwise not set at the place setting)
I think of my kitchen as being quite ordinary.
No. No one uses that term to refer to a dinner or table knife. Case is a brand of knife.
Here is one of the most expensive Oneida sets. Knives are referred to as a "knife".
And the butter knife (a pointed one no less) is called a "butter knife". Imagine that.
This is pretty much the standard for flatware. If there is a steak knife, it is called such.
If there is a butter knife, it is called that.
Otherwise, it's a KNIFE.
Last edited by ChessieMom; 06-14-2021 at 06:14 PM..
I can remember when I got engaged in 1981 it seemed VERY IMPORTANT to get the proper flatware. I actually had to have pistol grip knives. I mean I was obsessed by pistol grip knives. Luckily the pattern Paul Revere which was the same quality as what I had via the Betty Crocker catalog, came in pistol grip knives. The only pieces I paid retail for…I waited till they were on sale and used my Kaufmann’s employee discount.
It's funny that you mentioned the Betty Crocker catalog. Only a few weeks ago I bought an old, secondhand copy of the Betty Crocker Cookbook from 1981. It was in mint condition. It still had the orginal coupons in the back. One of them was an offer for Oneida flatware sets, service for four--for only $8.99 each (limit 5). There was no expiration date on any of the coupons, so I wondered if they would still honor them.
There was also a slew of coupons for other General Mills products, including some they no longer make. There was no expiration date on any of the coupons.
Every day and multiple knives as well. Household of 5, so it tends to get used by someone at some point during the day. Spreading cream cheese on a bagel, butter on toast. Cutting and buttering bread for dinner. Random mixing utensil. etc.
I probably wash 3-4 of them per night in the dishwasher
No. No one uses that term to refer to a dinner or table knife. Case is a brand of knife.
Well, my mother taught me that the "dinner knife" is called a case knife. She learned it from my grandmother who learned it from my great-grandmother. That's a small number of people, but it's not "no one".
Have you ever read Huckleberry Finn? Huck and Tom dig Jim out of his improvised prison (a shed) using a "case knife". So Mark Twain called it that too. Still a small number of people but I don't think Mark Twain counts as "no one".
WR Case's website traces their company back to 1889, still a venerable brand, but the uncapitalized usage predates it.
Because I am an old guy, and because my farm-raised forebears referred to it as a "case knife" I'm going to keep calling it a "case knife".
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Solly says — Be nice!
