Cake Breakers, Marrow Spoons, and Ice Cream Sporks

December 13, 2017 8:50 AM

Odd and unusual utensils -- Odd and unusual -- Historically odd and currently unusual.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (27 comments total)

Children's food pusher is not just for Victorians.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:55 AM on December 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Marrow spoon on amazon! Another one! Merry Christmas/Happy Hannukah to you and your oxtail soup!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:29 AM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

The "chopsticks on steroids" from the "currently unusual" link are definitely weirder and more useless than anything the Victorians came up with.

I'm not sure I really understand the profusion of forks with flared tines, though. Maybe I'd need to see them in action to get it.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:30 AM on December 13, 2017

I've always wanted a mustache spoon.
posted by vacapinta at 9:36 AM on December 13, 2017

In Spain you can still find skewers for snails. For extra kitsch you can get them in funny shapes, like a bunch of tiny swords.
posted by sukeban at 9:37 AM on December 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

Dammit, I would have for sure bought tiny snail skewering swords on or recent spain trip if I had seen them.

Instead I ended up asking our waiter to keep the fancy food tweezers our razor clams were served with a the fancy tasting menu place we tried, and I have to say they are an awesome souvenir - like chopsticks but easier/less versatile.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 10:01 AM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

When my partner's parents died 25 years ago, he inherited a great many household goods accumulated by both them and by his grandmother. We've sold or donated nearly all of it over the years, but the goods included snail forks (my partner had to explain to me what they were for--living in North Dakota, his mother mail-ordered delicacies like snails, which came in cans and then had to be placed into shells for serving. He inherited a collection of snail shells as well as the forks), and, I am 95% sure since it looked so familiar when I saw the picture, a cake-breaker.
posted by Orlop at 10:06 AM on December 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Mango forks are great. Can also be used for corn on the cob.

My life changed when I started using chopsticks to eat popcorn and Cheetos while using a keyboard or phone.

Maybe now that touchscreens are everywhere there is a new market for specialized tools to allow one handed eating while keeping fingers clean....
posted by Index Librorum Prohibitorum at 10:21 AM on December 13, 2017 [7 favorites]

Agree that the food pusher is still relatively current, I was born in the early seventies and my grandmother gave me a brand new set of a metal plate with ABCs around the edge, some sort of cute farmyard scene in the middle, and it came with a mug (the whole alphabet on one side, the farm scene on the other) and spork and pusher. The utensils were very plain, just sort of a hammered metal texture that was also on the back side of the plate and the unembossed parts of the mug.

That grandmother also began buying children's full serving sets for herself in old age, and using them for all her meals. They were easier to hold with Parkinson's, and made her happy, though she would refuse to eat if you laid out mismatched pieces. Most had melamine plates with happy artwork. Some had the pusher, some did not.
posted by buildmyworld at 10:28 AM on December 13, 2017 [5 favorites]

Maybe now that touchscreens are everywhere there is a new market for specialized tools to allow one handed eating while keeping fingers clean

the equine feedbag is hundreds if not thousands of years old, why improve on perfection
posted by poffin boffin at 11:05 AM on December 13, 2017 [9 favorites]

I also learned, doing this post, that Replacements.com will custom-make you a lot of these old-timey pieces to match your current place settings, be they stainless or silver (same pattern, in stainless steel and in sterling silver). And now I kind-of want to know what it would cost to get an asparagus server to match my flatware!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:23 AM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Huh, my childhood flatware set (Oneida, I believe) had several of what the Saveur article calls "olive forks," but we called them pickle forks because they were used mainly to get pickles out of the jar without dipping your fingers in the brine. A+ use of the keepmefiweird tag!
posted by All hands bury the dead at 12:05 PM on December 13, 2017 [3 favorites]

the equine feedbag is hundreds if not thousands of years old, why improve on perfection

Here you go: Pilson's Feedbag Dinners
posted by mmascolino at 12:12 PM on December 13, 2017 [4 favorites]

Tried the feedbag. Now have Cheeto dust high up my sinuses. Should I use a narrow marrow spoon to dig it out? Please advice.
posted by Index Librorum Prohibitorum at 12:19 PM on December 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

Oh man I really want a marrow spoon! Great post, thanks!
posted by k8bot at 12:25 PM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Cake Breaker is also a good name for a character in a dessert-themed fighting game.
posted by mhum at 12:31 PM on December 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

"before eventually buying two"

This literally makes my day!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:02 PM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Some of these pieces were obsoleted by changes in diet (which is why marrow spoons are uncommon) or were never much more than an excuse to sell silverware. Some were replaced by tongs, which today can be much better, cheaper, and lighter than they were in the Victorian era. But the most interesting ones are those which are are still around, if you go to a homewares store. You can still find many large/flat/pierced/pronged spoins of various sorts that are similar to ones described as "asparagus servers" or "tomato spoons"; we just call them generic "salad servers" or "salad spoons".
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:17 PM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

The mid-century frozen food knife is something I see pop up on a lot of "what's this thing?" groups on Facebook and Reddit -- the weird-looking blade is designed to cut the kind of frozen food that became ubiquitous with better mass-produced frozen-food technology in the mid-20th-century (remember the old ginsu knife commercial cutting into a cardboard rectangle package of frozen veggies?), then made obsolete with the advent of the microwave in the 1970s.
posted by AzraelBrown at 1:49 PM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

Light saber... chopsticks? Clicked for the questions, was not disappointed.

"Does it have sound?" Answer: "nope. you have to unleash your inner jedi."
posted by TrishaU at 2:49 PM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

"(remember the old ginsu knife commercial cutting into a cardboard rectangle package of frozen veggies?)"

I had a grad school roommate with a set of ginsu knives that she bequeathed me when she moved out, and OMG FULLY AS AWESOME AS ADVERTISED. I literally used them to cut particle board furniture when I wanted to put in cable holes. I am still using two or three of them in my kitchen, 15-ish years after I inherited them from my roommate, and who knows how many years after she got them!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:07 PM on December 13, 2017 [2 favorites]

I thought the marrow spoon was for the vegetable, until I saw it. What a misleading name.

I really like how matter of fact these descriptions are.
posted by Braeburn at 11:31 PM on December 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm dismayed by the lack of Splayds.
posted by scruss at 9:17 AM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]

I have splayds! Picked them up at the op shop. I never knew they had a name other than like-a-spork-but-even-better, so thanks for that!
posted by inexorably_forward at 2:12 PM on December 14, 2017

I need a marrow spoon! I like to eat
marrow.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 12:30 AM on December 15, 2017

I want a mango fork. That actually would fill a need for me, making it easier to eat delicious, delicious mangoes.
posted by seyirci at 9:08 AM on December 19, 2017

A chart: Grand Unification Theory of Cutlery. Note that only one company appears to make the type in the middle.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:11 AM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]