Dining Etiquette

By the same token, how many of my fellow CBers sample the ingredients they are using in a recipe as they prepare the meal?

For example, you're chopping up some cheese - do you cut yourself a piece and eat it while chopping up the amount needed for the recipe? While cooking a recipe with some sort of meat in it, like chicken, beef or prawns - do you fish out some and sample it, while stirring the pot?
Usually, yes. A lot of people who do that will smile, wink, and say, "Just doing a quality control check," but for me, I really am, making sure a tomato isn't too far gone, or I'm tasting for seasoning.
 
Not on my workplace, but at home yes. When it's a fresh vegetable it's like waking up the stomach for me and like others to test the quality. Some recipes, like potatoe dumplings suggest to make a test dumpling first to see how it will be and when I cook noodles I always try one before taking them out of the water.
Stay healthy
 
Usually, yes. A lot of people who do that will smile, wink, and say, "Just doing a quality control check," but for me, I really am, making sure a tomato isn't too far gone, or I'm tasting for seasoning.

Yes, indeed, testing for taste is a matter of must do, when doing your own cooking. I don't sample to test freshness, however, that should be obvious by sight and perhaps, smell.
 
It has already been hashed around in another thread, the idea of drinking straight out of bottles. So I would expect that it need not be rehashed here.

But I wonder how many members might use the same dishes twice in the same day for different meals. Consider for example, heating up some left overs for breakfast or lunch and then later, using the same plate to eat your daily meal. How many members take that short cut? I will admit to having occasionally done so, if the plate after the first pass is left reasonably clear of stuff from that, before re-using it.

Of course, this sort of thing is done when eating by yourself and not serving up to additional people.
 
But I wonder how many members might use the same dishes twice in the same day for different meals.
Nope, never. I won't even use the same plate for the same meal, meaning that I'll serve salad on a plate, and then, say, a piece of lasagne.

MrsT will eat the salad, rinse the plate, and put her lasagne on it. I won't do that. I won't even use the same fork.

There's an old saying around these parts that you'd hear a lot at Sunday suppers: "Keep your fork, because there's pie coming up." - meaning, don't put your fork in the dirty dishes yet, because dessert is on the way.

That just disgusts me. I can't believe anyone would expect me to eat a piece of apple pie with the same fork I used to eat spaghetti. :headshake:
 
I'm using the same bowls/knifes for preparing food, when I believe nothing will happen, for example when I bake a lot I'll let the bread rise for two days in one bowl, place the dough in a baking dish and use the bowl for the next dough, not for the next bread dough but for example a cookie dough that just needs to be mixed together, then I'll put the bowl into the dishwasher, cross contamination is not something I'm fighting against in my own kitchen.
Stay healthy
 
That just disgusts me. I can't believe anyone would expect me to eat a piece of apple pie with the same fork I used to eat spaghetti. :headshake:

Nor me. Makes me feel a bit queasy. But I don't mind if things are rinsed off properly and dried. For example if I ate a sandwich off of a plate and a few crumbs were left, I can't see an issue with brushing off the crumbs, rinsing and drying the plate and then serving a slice of cake on the same plate.

Its not something that arises here really as I just bung everything in the dishwasher as I go, so not much point in using the same plate twice.
 
I've been watching old reruns of Jacques & Julia from the 1990's, and I do get a kick out of Julia, because I've seen her, in more than one episode, look around for something, like a whisk, see it in the sink behind them where either she or Jacques had used it before, pick it up, look at it, then stick it into whatever she's cooking. :laugh:
 
How keen are you on dining etiquette in your own home? - and in restaurants?
Seen this earlier but was doing chores and unable to focus long enough...
At home
Pretty relaxed, I like to keep the good manners basics, no feet on the table :rolleyes:, no yelling, no slurping (if it happens by accident, no big deal), but kids tend to overdo, so just being normal...I don't havetime to fuss much around setting the table, de-setting the table, plus the kitchen table serves as cooking/prep surface, so it is usually a speedy arrangement, since it is only my daughter and me, we could e.g. have a salad in a joint big bowl and eat together from that bowl, no prob. Hands for pizza, cheese, fish, any " finger food", sliced food, sliced fruit...I'd love to have a lovely set table as per etiquette, but for now, it is unsustainable.
We try to keep it simple and basic decent. She still asks me to cut her Schnitzel, which I roll my eyes over, as she is old enough to do it herself. But as I am away at work most of the days, the whole days, we balance - sometimes I do it, sometimes she does it with encouragement...

At a restaurant

Well, that is different, and should be all over good manners. I don't think I know all the etiquette details for all dishes and all occasions, but, as I wrote on a different thread, am, as always, willing to learn or be educated by friendly locals.

The two of us , kid and I did not attend any VERY formal dinners so far, so that is yet to come, but should work all right. I mean nobody is going to mind terribly if a detail is out of place, at least not in our community. You might get a gaze or an energy shift, but, I mean, with kids, or even us adults, you have to be forgiving, it is not the end of the world if you mix up the wine and water glasses, if they are both on stalks (as I did once, and my then boss laughed at me :whistling:)

Other

As medtran mentioned, at home habits change if we have a visit, which we rarely do, as it is a tiny flat, so if we meet with friends, it is more likely to be a coffee shop or a walk...

What I dislike in general is e.g. throwing bakery wrapping papers or baggies onto the floor/pavement onto the streets, I fidn that extremely rude, <i have raised my kid not to ever do that, or any kind of leftovers, a chewing gum, belongs to a piece of paper and into the garbage bin.

I also dislike rude language, anywhere, so I have raised her not to use it, I never use it. I dislike unnecessary yelling, so I discourage that too. I have transferred to my kid the necessity of polite gratitude, e.g. on kids' birthday parties, even if she does not like the candies gifted to her, or pencils or whatever, she should politely say thank you, smile and later pass on the gift to Grandma or me, or whatever...we can always donate it or find a charity, whatever...

I try to raise her with awareness of what real food is, vs snacks and empty calories, veges, fruits, meals, home made food, a whole meal, we try to minimize fast food to several times a month, she drinks predominantly water (soda rarely, coke never, juices sometimes), desserts are on after a meal, not prior, she should clean her teeth regularly...all those are vital, as far as my opinion is asked. And she is encouraged to walk, and exercise, she does athletics 3 x a week, she does not have to win any races, just work out. Now with her toe injury she is pausing, but will continue.
 
By the same token, how many of my fellow CBers sample the ingredients they are using in a recipe as they prepare the meal?

For example, you're chopping up some cheese - do you cut yourself a piece and eat it while chopping up the amount needed for the recipe? While cooking a recipe with some sort of meat in it, like chicken, beef or prawns - do you fish out some and sample it, while stirring the pot?
Yes, always! I cook at home, so it is perfectly fine for me to do so, and I am usually hungry by the time I make a meal, sure, yep. Of course, I use a clean spoon if I fish a piece out, try it for seasoning, check if it is cooked through...or with baking, I insert a thin chopstick to check the dough...Although vegetarian, I will test the meat which I serve to kid, to make sure it is not too salty, or not salty enough, or undercooked, sometimes it is a visual cut and check only, but sometimes a tiny piece chewed...that is perfectly fine too...I don't feel like eating the whole dish, but a mother's duty, yes:happy:
 
I really have no qualms about eating food that fell on the floor, as long as the floor was reasonably clean.

My grandma used to say kids would be healthier if they ate more dirt and stuff of the floor. She called this vitamin M, the M stands for m#$!a (the portuguese word for s$!t) :laugh:
 
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