"Default User" > schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
> Michael Kuettner wrote:
>
>>
>> "javawizard" > schrieb
>>
>> > It's hard to imagine that until about four hundred years ago,
>> > European people ate everything with their fingers. When a few
>> > people started using forks in England, everyone else thought the
>> > idea of using tools to eat was totally ridiculous. - from the Food
>> > History section of www.odd-info.com
>> >
>> Strange. The quarrel about the usage of the fork started in the 11th.
>> century. In Venezia ...
>> Then there were spoon and knife ...
>
> Yeah, the knife used to be the primary eating utensil. In fact, as I
> recall the first forks weren't even for eating, they were like minature
> carving forks, with two sharp prongs. People used them to hold meat
> while they cut it, then ate with the knife. Or something like that.
>
No. The fork came from Byzantine. It was used for stuffing food
into the cake-hole.
It was originally two-pronged, as you say.
The problem with the fork was the schism of 1054; first condemnation
of a "tool for emasculated heretics" or something along those lines.
That went on until Luther ...

Cheers,

Michael Kuettner