Fork

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The fork is essential. Even camping without one is a false economy, in Katy’s experience. Even a spork - with a spoon at one end and a fork at the other, with a knife formed along one prong - just won’t do. You need both - a fork to steady the meat and a knife to cut it with. So how did the fork come to be so indispensable? We didn’t always love the fork. Public historian, Greg Jenner, reveals how it was abandoned for the chopstick in Ancient China, and greeted with scorn in Western Europe when a Byzantine princess ate with a golden double-pronged one. It was only after the traveller, Thomas Coryat, in 1608, celebrated its use by pasta-loving Italians that the English started to take note. By the mid-19th century, there was a fork for every culinary challenge – from the pickle and the berry, to ice-cream and the terrapin. The utensil transformed the dining experience, bringing the pocket knife onto the table in a blunt, round-tipped form, and ushering in British table manners. So is there a perfect version of the fork? With the help of tomato, milkshake and mango, Katy discovers that the material a fork is made from can drastically alter a food’s taste. Featuring material scientist, Zoe Laughlin, and food writer and historian, Bee Wilson. Picture: a fork, Credit: BBC

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.1	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really. Comedy is a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know, I also know that comedy is really
0:24.3	subjective and everyone has different tastes. So we've got a huge range of comedy on offer from
0:29.8	satire to silly, shocking to soothing, profound to just general pratting about. So if you
0:36.1	fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds. This is discovery from the BBC World Service.
0:47.0	I'm comedian Katie Brand and this is the origin of stuff
0:51.0	where I pay homage to those overlooked and sometimes underrated essentials of everyday life.
0:57.0	I like to think I come across as quite practical. I was a brownie until I was thrown out, then I was a girl guide
1:05.6	until I was thrown out. I have extensive camping experience and have trekked across
1:10.1	northern Pakistan with minimal luggage.
1:13.0	So I was initially pleased to be given an item as a gift which seemed to reflect my
1:17.4	outward-bound Rameer's type persona.
1:20.1	It was a piece of plastic the size of, well, the size of a piece of cutlery.
1:24.0	At one end was a spoon, at the other a fork with a knife formed into one side,
1:29.0	a serrated edge along the outermost prong.
1:32.0	I was delighted. Think how this would cut down on
1:35.5	unnecessary packing for my next expedition. But on the first night under canvas
1:40.2	having barbecued some steak I went to slice into it with my new eating implement and found
	...

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