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Steak etiquette: Cut it all up at once, or one piece at a time?
I'm having some steak here at home and happened to think of this:
Some time ago I was out at a restaurant once with a rather well-off vendor at work, and figured I'd order a steak. The food was brought to the table, and I started cutting up the steak like I always do.
The reaction from my coworkers there indicated that I'd made some terrible faux pas, and I was told that the "proper" way to eat steak is to cut off a piece, eat it, and repeat.
I was cutting the whole thing into pieces from the start so as not to be bothered with the knife for the duration of the meal, which was evidently a very unorthodox way of doing it.
Has anyone else ever heard of that?
Some time ago I was out at a restaurant once with a rather well-off vendor at work, and figured I'd order a steak. The food was brought to the table, and I started cutting up the steak like I always do.
The reaction from my coworkers there indicated that I'd made some terrible faux pas, and I was told that the "proper" way to eat steak is to cut off a piece, eat it, and repeat.
I was cutting the whole thing into pieces from the start so as not to be bothered with the knife for the duration of the meal, which was evidently a very unorthodox way of doing it.
Has anyone else ever heard of that?
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Yes. It's partially etiquette. It's also partially to keep the steak hot and juicy. When you cut a steak, the juices run out. This is why you let a steak rest before cutting it and why you only cut off one piece at a time. Also, heat escapes through the surface. When you cut steak into pieces, you increase the surface area causing it to cool faster.
I've heard (haven't verified the truthfulness) that the etiquette part of this rule is based on the fact that in medieval times, you always wanted to keep your knife in your hand when eating meat to keep others from taking your food.
There are two schools on how to handle the fork and knife... I prefer the Continental, or European style:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/c...switching.html
I've heard (haven't verified the truthfulness) that the etiquette part of this rule is based on the fact that in medieval times, you always wanted to keep your knife in your hand when eating meat to keep others from taking your food.
There are two schools on how to handle the fork and knife... I prefer the Continental, or European style:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/c...switching.html