AIBU not to use a fish-knife for my fishcakes?

[seoladair]

Husband and I sat down for a quick dinner of fishcakes with his parents last night. MIL suddenly leapt up and said "Oh no! We need fish-knives!"
She then berated my husband for his lack of etiquette in laying the table with ordinary knives.
The thing is, it was quite tricky to eat fish-cakes with fish-knives. I struggled on, but spotted MIL giving up and using her fork!

I use them on any occasion I can.

High five!!

YANBU - Fish knives are not needed and not for fish cakes!

This reminds me of having breakfast at friends house. Her Grandma was staying and I will never forget the almost period drama quality moment when she exclaimed with all the majestic horror of an outraged Dowager Duchess

"Katherine - you are eating your egg with a grapefruit spoon"

It was a catchphrase of ours for years afterwards

I yearn for fishknives and feel my life is the poorer for not having any.

But as you do have some, YABU. Your MIL was quite right.

love it :)

i'm not sure i've ever used them tbh.

We have fish knives. And deliberately too.

Using them for fishcakes is silly though.

We don't have any - we were at IL's for the weekend. They can have their moments but this w/e was going well until this sub-Downton episode!

Next time they come to eat at yours serve the food with chopsticks. Whatever it is :)

NoMoreInsomnia
sitting on the floor... :o

Weren't they invented purely so the upper classes would know how to use them and everyone else wouldn't?

Peeriebear
That makes sense. But anyone can buy a guide to etiquette. Whether you would want to is another matter.... (Goes off in chippy huff.)

Ex MIL also used to lecture about fish knives (and forks).

According to her, the reason for having separate fish cutlery was that before washing up liquid was invented, fish made your cutlery smell and taste which ordinary washing didn't remove. She also told me that they had to clean them with earth from the garden before washing them .

She was full of such-like gems.

Poolet -I love it! I will suggest to ILs that they should really be cleaning fish utensials with garden earth. They already get the black labradors to lick all the plates and cutlery after we've eaten - maybe this is a variation on your MIL's garden earth cleansing technique.

My former MIL had fish knives for no better reason than she felt they were somehow "refained". But then the whole sodding table was set with a million and one little thingummyjigs that made eating a meal something of an obstacle course. I have never known a woman to possess so many unnecessary condiment sets and pissy little spoons. What seemed to upset her most about my fish knives was (a) that they were monogrammed and (b)that my family owned but spurned these items. It was the Downton Gone Very Downhill thing she couldn't handle.

I dread to think what you eat with a "pissy little spoon" Pandemoniaa

Stratters is right. You can tell your MIL that fishknives are common.

"phone for the fishknives, Norman"

Time to move on to napkin rings, Vix?

"You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes; and I must have things daintily served"!

I always thought fish knives were owned by the kinds of people who say 'pardon?' and 'serviette', instead of 'what?' and 'napkin'.

They think they're being posh but they're not, bless 'em!

Amen to that LeQ.

We have fish knives, but rarely use them.

In fact, things like fish knives were only developed in Victorian times (I think), which means that the really smart people would have had older cutlery canteens which had been passed down. They would have regarded fish knives as nouveau riche, because they would only be owned by people who had bought their own cutlery ie didn't have "old money".

Strange but true

yy redwine - the sort of people who have to buy their own silver

Or furniture