Let's Play Which One is a Butter Knife?

[Deleted]

A:
B:
Brought to you by a disagreement between a local caterer and a CW placing an order for tableware in which she specified "fork, spoon and butter knife (she further explained that one could presumably cut chicken with a butter knife)"

[wambam]

A

[eb777888]

I feel dumb.

[janegold]

We use A for place-settings and B for a passed/shared butter crock. Sounds like your coworker was placing an order for place-settings so I would expect A.

[shostakovich]

A. B is a butter pat distributor/spreader thingy (that's the official term).

[Deleted]

A is a plain old butter knife.
B is a "fancy" butter knife.

But what do I know?

I feel like this scene:

[snipsnsnails]

I'm sure in their inventory, B is classified as a butter knife. When she specified she was looking for what seemed like tableware, they should've asked if she meant a table knife (A) or butter knife (B). I'm assuming that was the mixup?

[LLL]

B goes with a butter dish at the center of the table. A would go with the rest of the place settings. Unless everyone has their own individual butter dish then you could use both knives

[underwaterrhymes]

A

[TrickyBob]

A is your standard butter knife and B is sometimes used as a fancy butter knife but also is commonly used as a soft cheese spreader.

[pittsmcgee]

I always thought A was a butter knife, but my knowledge of cutlery is not up to par.

[Deleted]

A

[hungrycaterpillar]

Mar 6, 2014 13:54:27 GMT -5 kevin arnold said:

They both are. The one with the pointy tip is the one you would set out with a butter dish (Google tells me it's called a "master butter knife") and the other kind is set out in individual place settings as a butter spreader.

I wonder if it's called the master because it's the best at making it spread....



I'm bad at trying to be dirty and funny. 

[trixie12]

A

[moolarkey]

B is the knife that would go on the butter plate.

[pedanticwench]

I don't want to play, this is stupid.

[Deleted]

A is a dinner knife and B is a butter knife.

ETA: Last night's place setting was set with a fork, a spoon and a butter knife.

[y4m]

Why does anyone have to tell the caterer what silverware is appropriate for the meal they are serving?

[bornbaker]

Both.

B is technically a "butter knife" for which you only spread butter with it - I call A a butter knife, too. It just has more uses!

[cuddlyevil]

B

[UnderProtest]

If B is the same length as A, then it's probably a fish knife. Either way, she should have known to use A.

[revolution]

B

[snipsnsnails]

To be fair, the caterer just has an inventory of things and they go by the name of what they need to pull or rent. They should have specified with her when it was sort of obvious she was mixing up here terms, but she ordered butter knives and, well, got butter knives.

What was she serving?

[emjacobs]

I worked catering for several years, A is a service knife and should be placed to the right of the plate. Some people also call it the table knife or the dinner knife.

B is a bread knife, sometimes called a butter knife.

If someone asked specifically for a butter knife I would give them B.

[redheadk]

A is a dinner knife. B is a butter knife.

The caterer should have the common sense to know that it's unlikely someone will want an actual butter knife at each place setting and no dinner knife, regardless of how they are labeled in inventory.

[karmasabiotch]

B

[BeagleMama]

Mar 6, 2014 14:19:50 GMT -5 emjacobs said:

I worked catering for several years, A is a service knife and should be placed to the right of the plate. Some people also call it the table knife or the dinner knife.

B is a bread knife, sometimes called a butter knife.

If someone asked specifically for a butter knife I would give them B.

Yes!

But, I'd hope a caterer would understand the intention from experience or question her knife naming - do you mean a dinner knife?

[emjacobs]

Mar 6, 2014 14:25:42 GMT -5 BeagleMama said:

Mar 6, 2014 14:19:50 GMT -5 emjacobs said:

I worked catering for several years, A is a service knife and should be placed to the right of the plate. Some people also call it the table knife or the dinner knife.

B is a bread knife, sometimes called a butter knife.

If someone asked specifically for a butter knife I would give them B.

Yes!

But, I'd hope a caterer would understand the intention from experience or question her knife naming - do you mean a dinner knife?

Absolutely, we had diagrams to show people and asked them to circle which ones they wanted. Rich people think they know what they are talking about, they really don't.  

[renna]

B is for when the knife stays with the butter dish (community knife)

A is for each person at the place setting. If it was to be a dual-purpose knife (butter AND chicken cutting) you wouldn't be looking for B (which stays with the butter dish).



(at least that's the way I see it)

[snipsnsnails]

Mar 6, 2014 14:26:55 GMT -5 emjacobs said:

Mar 6, 2014 14:25:42 GMT -5 BeagleMama said:

Yes!

But, I'd hope a caterer would understand the intention from experience or question her knife naming - do you mean a dinner knife?

Absolutely, we had diagrams to show people and asked them to circle which ones they wanted. Rich people think they know what they are talking about, they really don't.  

Hahaha, I used to work a lot of event planning (for rich people) and worked with the caterers and never has more truth been spoken!