Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Cutlery

In the West, cutlery refers to any implement that is used in the preparation, serving, and especially eating of food. In the US it is commonly called flatware or silverware, because over there the word cutlery refers specifically to knives and other cutting tools. The term tableware is also used because it avoids suggesting that silverware is actually made of silver, although it may be. It can be solid silver, silver plated, or more usually today made of stainless steel which is considerably cheaper and just as hardwearing.

There are suppliers in the UK who supply catering boxes of all descriptions and have several different sizes and styles of cutlery box for storage, transport, and passing though the dishwasher.The name Master Cutler was given to a train running between Sheffield and London Marylebone in 1947, and although the route and times have changed the Master Cutler still leaves Sheffield at 7.29 running to St Pancras, and returns at 16.57.

The word cutler is actually derived from the Old English cuteler which in turn was derived from the Old French coutelier which comes from the word coutel, meaning knife. The modern French is couteau. There was also a Latin word culter which meant knife.

In the West today, the major items of cutlery are the knife, fork, and spoon. There are different sizes of each, so there are dinner knives, luncheon knives, dessert knives, fruit knives, fish knives, carving knives, knives with serrated blades such as steak knives, table knives which have a blunt end, and so on. Then there are salad forks which have broader tines than other forks and give extra leverage when cutting through salad leaves, and dessert forks which have a broader tine on the left which is useful to provide extra leverage when cutting food that does not normally need a knife.

Spoons can come as soup spoons which have a deep rounded bowl for holding soup, dessert spoons, table spoons which are similar to dessert spoons but larger and used for the purpose of serving food, tea spoons used for stirring sugar into tea, and coffee spoons which are smaller and more dainty and used for stirring sugar into coffee after dinner.

Back in the day, cutlery was made of Sterling Silver for most people, although the really wealthy would use gold cutlery. In the 19th century EPNS (Electro-Plated Nickel Silver) came into being as it was cheaper than silver but of course looked the same. Today, stainless steel is cheaper still.

Cutlery can also be made of plastic and is often used for things like camping and other outdoor activities. You also find plastic cutlery at fast-food restaurants. Plastic cutlery is used because it is disposable, but with the present-day concern for the environment we may see less of it in use. Cutlery can also be made of wood such as maple and bamboo and is another form of disposable cutlery because it is biodegradable.

Cutlery can even be edible. In India, edible cutlery is made from millet grains made into a dough and baked at high temperature which causes it to harden.

Of course, the catering trade uses a huge amount of cutlery – mostly stainless steel – and needs somewhere to store it, and to transport it in the case of outside catering. Hence the use of the cutlery box which can come in various styles. Today, cutlery boxes are often based on the Euro size since these can fit on to pallets and can also be stacked one on top of another. Using Euro size cutlery boxes means that the cutlery can be stored and transported along with other boxes for glassware, tableware, and so on.

A cutlery box is often made in a size of 400mm x 300mm and can be produced in a range of depths depending on how much cutlery it is required to hold. It can also be supplied with a lid. Some cutlery boxes are divided into sections so that different items can be stored separately, keeping the knives, spoons, forks, and teaspoons apart from each other. This makes for easy selection of items when laying tables. Other cutlery boxes have ventilated sides so that they can also be used for washing in the dishwasher.

Caterbox is the leading UK supplier of catering boxes of all descriptions and has several different sizes and styles of cutlery box for storage, transport, and passing though the dishwasher.

Caterbox is the premier supplier of chinaware, glassware, stacking glass storage boxes and other general catering items to the equipment hire.