What is the use of this strange contraption on this serving fork?
I just bought an old fork + knife set at a flea market. The kind of big cutlery that is used to cut and serve chicken, roasted meat, whatever.
The strange thing is that the fork has a moving part on the top of it. I don't know how to describe it, so here are the photos. This thing can be put up or down, and it doesn't have any spring, but it can stay in position (for both positions).
What is the purpose of this? I have never seen such a thing before.
For information, this was found in France, and the set is probably 50 years old or so.
Best Answer
I found the answer with a good illustration (from https://www.925-1000.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=41243):
The idea is that when you have a large piece of meat (such as a large prime rib or so), it's difficult to balance the meat to be able to cut it vertically. Instead, you cut it horizontally from the right with your carving knife (assuming you are right-handed).
To keep the meat from slipping away, you stick the fork in from the left, using your left hand. That puts the fork (and your left hand holding the fork) directly into the path of the knife when it exits the roast. The sudden lack of resistance could cause the knife to "jump" towards your hand.
With this guard, the knife hits the guard rather than the hand.
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Answer 2
It is a hand guard.
You can find these on new carving forks too. Example from amazon:
A thing I do not understand, though, is what sort of carving motion would put you in need of a hand guard. Something that entailed cutting towards yourself, I imagine.
Answer 3
That is (also) a lobster pick.
It seems to also serve as a hand guard, but the tiny prongs are exactly like on the forks used for coaxing lobster or other delicious sea food out of their garments. If it was only a hand guard, those would not be there.
Answer 4
We used to have one of these at home.
One use is to stop the fork going all the way into the joint if it is very big. We are a big family and the Sunday roast was huge.
edit: if it's a big roast and maybe a bit overdone, you fork will go all the way through. Also the prong keeps the mass in one place while you cut it, if the knife is not very sharp.
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Images: Victor Freitas, Victor Freitas, ROMAN ODINTSOV, ROMAN ODINTSOV