TYPE OF CUTLERIES

TYPE OF CUTLERIES	FUCTION
Dinner Fork	·         This is the long-tined fork you're used to.       ·         This worked beautifully for things like meat. However, it                  doesn't work so well with peas or corn or such.       ·         More tines were added to make it easier to capture a variety of        things from meat to legumes to vegetables.
Salad Fork	Same general idea of a dinner fork but it's a bit smaller and the tines are shorter. Notice that the tines are not an equivalent length apart. You've got one tine that's a bit wider (and sometimes notched) This designed allows you to get more leverage will dining. See, there is some method to the madness. Here's the rule on salad forks: if your main course is a salad or if your salad is served as a side dish to your entrée, use your dinner fork.
Fish Fork and Knife	These will usually be silver. It's not just to be snooty. Fish is often served with lemon, which will react with steel and will create an unpleasant taste. So, if you're going to bother to go all out and buy the fish fork and knife set, make sure it's silver. As you may be able to tell, the tines on a fish fork are shorter than a traditional meat fork. But a fish fork's tines are evenly spaced. The knife will usually be your dead giveaway. It will be in the same place in a place setting on the opposite side. These knives are not designed for cutting, they're more supposed to be used for separating the fish meat from the bone cleanly. This knife is meant to be held the same way as the knife you're more familiar with, so don't worry.
Seafood Fork	These look like something Poseidon might yield. It can either have two or three short tines and is usually built to a) follow the shape of a shell and/or b) get into small spaces and spear the meat.
Beef Fork	A fork used specifically for picking up thin slices of meat (as you can guess beef would qualify). It's shaped like a regular fork but it's bigger and the tines are curved outward.
Relish Fork	This is sometimes called a condiment fork. If you see it, it looks like a mini fork with a long handle but look carefully. There are two or three tines and they're set very close together. Often, but not always, the ends of the tines will be slightly splayed in order to hold more. All of this makes sense when you think of what relish and chutney are. A relish fork allows for liquid to drain off which will make less of a mess and keep whatever food the server is topping from getting soggy. In a pinch, just use a seafood fork.
Teaspoon	A small spoon (not the measuring spoon) that is supposed to be used for ready? ONLY BEVERAGES (though, actually, coffee does have its own spoon) Yeah, the theory is that everything else served at the table either has a separate spoon or does not require one.
Tablespoon	A large spoon that is nowadays, usually used for serving rather than eating. So, naturally, the cutlery tablespoon holds the equivalent of the measuring spoon tablespoon. Actually a cutlery tablespoon holds less than a tablespoon.
Soup Spoon	What's the difference between a tablespoon and a soup spoon. A tablespoon is oval-shaped. Because style is the name of the game, the shape will vary from set to set. But if we're talking standard definitions, a soup spoon has a rounded bowl rather than ovoid. It is also supposed to be slightly less than a tablespoon. These, of course, are the definitions for a Western soup spoon. Chinese soup spoons are usually made of ceramic and flat-bottomed.
Dessert Spoon	It may be difficult to tell a dessert spoon from a soup spoon. Traditionally, the shape is ovoid (like a tablespoon) but the size is roughly the same size as a soup spoon. It will almost always be placed above the plate (specifically so that it doesn't get confused).
Steak Knife	Your steak knife will be over-sized (and if it's family oriented, the tip will be rounded) with smaller serrations A more upscale restaurant will give you a smaller sharper knife with a pointed tip.
Butter Knife	Smaller than a dinner knife or a steak knife and usually (but not always) with a rounded tip. You should ONLY use it to cut and spread butter.