Etiquette for Eating Green Corn

“… when folks, even the most refined folks - folks that won’t even permit a poodle to sleep with them - start in on their boiled corn part of the menu, past precedent is thrown to the winds. The book of rules is consigned, with all other etiquette, to a warmer place, and every man is content to get his corn off the cob in the fastest and most convenient way in which he is able to operate.” –Even with the plethora of tools and forks for eating corn from the cob, and the seemingly endless 19th century creativity of design elements in making those tools and forks, inventors and designers never quite came up with a solution for making the task of eating corn from the cob appear “civilized.”  Above is a selection of patented tools, including strippers or scrapers, forks and holders, designed for eating corn on the cob.

GREEN CORN – HOW TO EAT IT!

The world is able to classify a man by two things his table manners and the style of his hand baggage. For instance, if, in your travels, you encounter an individual at a hotel who can cover his knife with mashed potatoes to the hilt and then get them all off without injury to his tonsils, you immediately have this man’s social number. On the other hand, if he carries a canvas telescope or “knee knocker” reinforced by a part of his wife’s clothes line, then you are also able to classify him properly.

You may have an inkling of a man's “bringing up” by the tools he chooses in eating his pie, or by the manner in which he muffles his exhaust in eating soup. Yet when it comes to green corn, every known rule is violated.

Some ways for eating certain things are planned for economical reasons. Thus the country hotel keeper serves his olives in a bottle and expects you to get them out with your fingers. He also furnishes you with possibly a grapefruit or orange in the morning and expects you to keep your ears clean with a paper napkin. There are recognized ways of taking soup into the system and these ways all call for a limit to the noise zone.

But when folks, even the most refined folks - folks that won’t even permit a poodle to sleep with them - start in on their boiled corn part of the menu, past precedent is thrown to the winds. The book of rules is consigned, with all other etiquette, to a warmer place, and every man is content to get his corn off the cob in the fastest and most convenient way in which he is able to operate.

No, neighbor, we shall never have to worry about any styles relative to denuding the cob of its succulent kernels. We may have worried whether it is proper to remove jelly from the nose with a fork or a napkin, and it may have annoyed us to remember whether it is better form to sneeze under or over the table, but we shall never have to tax our brain on new rules for eating green corn from the cob. It is a catch-as-catch-can proposition and the farm hand is just as refined and just as mannerly at this delectable pursuit as the guy who learned his table manners from a young woman’s seminary. – Imperial Valley Press, 1915

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Gilded Age Corn on Cob Etiquette

Numerous corn forks, corn holders, corn “strippers” (also marketed as corn “scrapers” and corn “slitters”) were patented from the Gilded Age well into the mid-20th century. 

Corn Fork

Corn on the cob, even today, is not a normal item at a formal meal— it is too messy. Yet, some Victorian hostesses did serve corn on the cob. There were several ways of handling corn on the cob. One was to use the silver cob holders shown. These worked exactly like the plastic cob holders the fastidious use on picnics to day.

At least one 1880s etiquette book favored serving corn on the cob, noting, “A lady who gives many elegant dinners at Newport causes to be laid beside the plate of each guest two little silver-gilt spike-like arrangements. Each person then places these in either end of the corn-cob and eats his corn holding it by two silver handles.” Some etiquette writers advised people to use a knife to cut the kernels off the cob and then eat the loose kernels with a fork.

The corn fork reflects another approach. The center portion of this large fork was designed to be used in scraping the corn kernels from the cob. The fork could then be used to eat the loose kernels. As a design, it was a success, the scraper worked quite well. How ever, it was a product for which there was no real market. Few diners wanted to go to that much trouble for corn so the fork sold very poorly and today is almost impossible to find.— From “Forgotten Elegance,” 2003

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette for Berries and More

Before berry forks came spoons– Berries can be eaten using either a berry fork, a dessert spoon or dessert fork, to suit however the berries are served.

Q. In eating berries as dessert, is it against the rules of etiquette to crush the berries with one’s spoon, or should they be eaten whole with sugar and cream? – Signed, “Anxious”

A. It is not correct to crush the berries and there is no reason for doing it. They should be taken whole on the spoon and then eaten. – Sotoyome Scimitar, 1930

A writer at Harper's Bazaar takes up her pen to put us all to rights on our behavior at the table. We give a part of her lecture as follows: “A cream-cake, and anything of similar nature, should be eaten with knife and fork, never bitten. Asparagus may be taken from the finger and thumb. Peas and beans, we all know, require the fork only. Potatoes, if mashed, should be mashed with the fork. Green corn should be eaten from the cob, but it must be held with a single hand. Celery, cresses, radishes, and all that sort of thing, are, of course, to be eaten from the fingers; the salt should be laid upon one’s plate, not upon the cloth. Fish is to be eaten with the fork, without the assistance of the knife; a bit of bread in the left hand sometimes helps one to master a refractory morsel. Berries, of course, are to be eaten with a spoon. It is not proper to drink with a spoon in the cup; nor should one, by the way, ever quite drain the cup or glass. Spoons are sometimes used with puddings, but forks are the better style. A spoon should never be turned over in the mouth.” – Pacific Rural Press, 1879 

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Gilded Age Dinner Etiquette "Extras"

Fruit-knives are required, and ice-spoons, orange spoons, and other unique conceits in silver utensils may be provided with the dessert, if one happens to own them...

Miscellaneous Points of the Gilded Age Dinner

Extra knives and forks are brought in with any course that requires them. The preliminary lay-out is usually meant to provide all that the scheme of the dinner will call for; but one must have a goodly supply of silver and cutlery to avoid altogether the necessity for having some of it washed and returned to the table during the progress of the dinner. It is very desirable to be amply equipped, as it facilitates the prompt and orderly serving of the courses.

Fruit-knives are required, and ice-spoons, orange spoons, and other unique conceits in silver utensils may be provided with the dessert, if one happens to own them; otherwise, plain forks and spoons do duty as required. The fork bears the chief burden of responsibility, being used for everything solid or semi-solid, leaving the spoon to the limited realm of soft custards and fruits that are so juicy as to elude the tines of the fork.

The knife is held in hand as little as possible, being used only when cutting is actually necessary, the fork easily separating most vegetables, etc. In the fish course, however, the knife is used to assist in removing the troublesome small bones.

In holding the knife the fingers should not touch the blade, except that the forefinger rests upon the upper edge not far below the shank when the cutting requires some firmness of pressure. The dinner knife should be sharp enough to perform its office without too much muscular effort, or the possible accident of a duck's wing flying unexpectedly " from cover" under the ill-directed stress of a despairing carver's hand. I have seen the component parts of a fricasseed chicken leave the table, not untouched— oh! no; every one had been sawing at it for a half an hour—but uneaten it certainly was, for obvious reasons. The cutlery was pretty, but practically unequal to even spring chicken.                               

The fork bears the chief burden of responsibility, being used for everything solid or semi-solid, leaving the spoon to the limited realm of soft custards and fruits that are so juicy as to elude the tines of the fork.

The fork is held with the tines curving downward, that position giving greater security to the morsel, and is raised laterally, the points being turned, as it reaches the mouth, just enough to deposit the morsel between the slightly-parted lips. During this easy movement the elbow scarcely moves from its position at the side, a fact gratefully appreciated by one's next neighbor. What is more awkward than the arm projected, holding the fork pointing backward at a right angle to the lips, the mouth opening wide like an automatic railway gate to an approaching locomotive—the labored and ostentatious way in which food is sometimes transported to its destination? Nor, once in the mouth, is it lost to sight forever. Other people, seated opposite, are compelled to witness it in successive stages of the grinding process, as exhibited by the constant opening and shutting of the mouth during mastication, or laughing and talking with the mouth full—faults of heedless people of energetic but not refined manners.

Liquids are sipped from the side of the spoon, without noise or suction. In serving vegetables the tablespoon is inserted laterally, not " point first."

Celery is held in the fingers, asparagus also, unless the stalks are too tender. Green corn may be eaten from the cob, a good set of natural teeth being the prime requisite. It may be a perfectly graceful performance if daintily managed.

The management of fruits in the dessert is another test of dainty skill. Oranges may be eaten in different ways; they may be cut in half across the sections, and the cells scooped out with a spoon; or they may be peeled and separated. The pegs of a large Florida orange can be skinned with the point of a sharp fruit-knife, and the seeds removed, leaving only the juicy pulp to be conveyed to the mouth. Practice enables one easily to "make way with" an orange. Bananas are peeled and held in the fingers, or, if very mealy, they may be cut into "bites" and eaten with a fork. Juicy pears and peaches may be managed in the same way, at discretion, the rule being that the fingers should touch as little as possible fruits that are decidedly mushy.

The finger-bowl stands ready to repair all damages of the nature suggested. The fingers are dipped in the water and gently rinsed, and then passed lightly over the lips, and both mouth and fingers are wiped upon the napkin.

At a signal from the hostess, the ladies rise and return to the drawing-room. The gentlemen follow immediately, or remain a short time for another glass of wine, when such is the provision of the host. – From "Etiquette: An Answer to the Riddle When? Where? How??" By Agnes H. Morton

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber is the Site Editor for Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia