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 wouldn't with a fish cake but I would with fresh fish. I don't enjoy fresh fish without fish knives and forks but then I can't enjoy soup with a desert spoon either and I like it best in the soup bowls with the handles on either side that are just big enough. And really nice pastries, like a cream slice or strawberry tart taste best if you use a pastry fork and use a nice bone china tea plate.

There is nothing nicer than using the dining room on high days and holidays with the proper china and the silver and the crystal and the white linen napkins.

The side-plate comment reminded me of another funny thing they do - they always but always lay out two knives even if we aren't having a starter or cheese.

Marriedinwhite
Yes, there is something lovely about bone china, proper linen napkins etc. We were given lovely dinner service, crystal etc when we got married, and use them about twice a year. I just don't get the logic of the fish-knife for fishcake!

I agree with marriedinwhite up to a point because I like such things (not fish knives) on special occasions. This was different; a quick fish cake meal.

You'll be telling us next that your mother-in-law uses serviettes rather than napkins.

Ha - no, she very definitely uses napkins rather than serviettes, sits on a sofa, never refers to the toilet, always says lavatory or loo blah blah ad infinitum....

Loo, lavatory is almost as bad as toilet.

Ask her if she prefers French windows, or French doors...

I don't know what a fish knife is.

No no stay usual - fish knives are vair non U

S'ok to laff at fish knives usual, they're the benchmark of M/C unease.

I've just googled, I have a fish knife in my cutlery drawer .I wondered what it was.

Fish knives were designed to help filleting flatfish such as sole and taking them off the bone. It is preposterous to attempt to use a fish knife to cut a fishcake/tuna steak/fillet of salmon as I have to repeatedly tell the waiters at work as I yet again remove the offending fish knife from their cutlery tray.

Cutlery is there to make eating easier, not harder. Gosh, that was quite a rant

As a child my mother used to give me a fish knife and fork to eat my fishfingers....

OhDearNigel I thought you were going to say "It is preposterous to attempt to use a fish knife to assert one's superiority over the lower orders".

French windows or doors!
Christ, another thing to be worried about.

I don't have any fish knives, but I do have an ancient stilton trowel*.

*Trowel may not, in fact, be the correct term.

It's bizarre, isn't it.

Nancy Mitford, the New Statesman and Stratters in complete agreement,

The nouve 19th century Spendthrift ancestors left mounds of the things to their ungrateful poorer descendants. Not dishwasher proof and can't even be used as a butterknife.

Are other nations as fish knife obsessed?

Scoop.

Fish knives are only used for the fish on the bone, not fishcakes nor fish fingers, tell her to chill out, she is the one who obviously does not understand etiquette.

I would be very tempted to serve crabsticks from Iceland the next time she dined with you. With the most expensive antique silver fish knives you can afford.

With a side of Pombears. With solid silver monogrammed pombear tongs bearing the MM crest.

Crabsticks with antique silver fish knives, followed by processed cheese slices cut with the stilton trowel.
I love it.

The earth to clean things is not that far fetched, sand was used in the 18th century for scouring. I guess the practice continued until modern detergents were invented.

at the processed cheese slices and trowel.

I was looking for bear-shaped tongs and found an implement. I don't know what it is but,
Poor Gingerbread Man...

There there NO depths to which the aspirational peasants will not stoop?

Fish knives are the epitomy of gauche trying-too-hard middle classes.

I read a great tip once, if the Queen doesnt use it then its not to be used, and she doesnt use fish knives!

Surely it's a bit like manners. Very useful things to have and should be used to make life easier and more pleasant all round.

Often used by those completely up themselves to try and make others feel inadequate.

I believe the Queen uses two forks for fish.

TheNightisDark - I love that gingerbread man thing! It's a bit sinister looking though.
OK, in my quest to "better myself" for my MIL, I shall try to verify whether the queen uses two knives for her fish, then next time I dine on "gateaux a poisson" avec MIL, I shall request two knives, a la Her Majesty.

I could even fake some letters from Buckingham Palace and Debrett's, confirming that this is what the "top people" do.

Such japes!!