I know you can get funny shaped ones and square ones but 98% of them are round - why?
2006-10-12 00:42:42 · 23 answers · asked by Anonymous in Food & Drink ➔ Other - Food & Drink
I reckon because they were traditionally made on a potter's wheel.
2006-10-12 00:43:45 · answer #1 · answered by Thomas V 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Many years ago, when people didn't have access to plates, they used pieces of bread as plates - so all the meaty juices would soak into it (waste not want not etc). Bread is ususally roundish in shape. Then after a while, they used pieces of wood (think about the shape of a branch) called trenchers. The more wealthy used metal plates, then china. That's why plates are round. There are some particularly beautiful painted Elizabethan trenchers in Manchester Art Gallery if you're interested.
Oh god, the sad facts I know.
2006-10-12 07:47:21 · answer #2 · answered by Roxy 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
As mentioned before, they were originally round from being made on a potter's wheel, plus a circle is structurally the strongest shape there is. Plus aesthetically food looks better on a round surface with no top or bottom. Food can be placed in any order on the plate without looking off center or out of line.
2006-10-12 07:46:35 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Plates were traditionally made from wood and the slice of a tree was the norm.
Plates when made from clay were easier to make them from a rolled ball of clay and then flattened before firing, if it was square, the extremities were vulnerable to heat and would be weaker than the overall circular plate.
If used for cooking it is not practical to use anything but a standard round plate.
2006-10-12 08:01:03 · answer #4 · answered by ?Master 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
What I found after some research is because originally they were thrown on a potter's wheel
But thinking about it they prob used wood to start off and if you cut down a tree and slice it .. it's flat and round like a plate so possibly that's where it began ... really no clue :-)
2006-10-12 10:59:48 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The're not, round plates have only been common place in the last 200 years, prior to that they were in the shape of a spaceship.
2006-10-12 07:55:31 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It can double up as a frizzbie if a plate is round. Also have you ever seen a juggler spin square plates on those rods. No they have to be round.
2006-10-12 07:47:42 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
because of the way they were made, pottery ones were thrown and wooden ones turned.
btw, wooden trenchers were no cut straight through a round section of wood as hinted above. If you did that hte wood would split after a few days because of the drying process.
Tranchers were cut along the grain, thats why they end up being a bit wonky and oval, because the wood shrinks more across the grain than along it as it dries.
2006-10-12 07:54:28 · answer #8 · answered by Michael H 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
originally plates for square. Sailors used to eat from square tins and that is where the phrase "square meal" came from but nowadays I suspect it is something to do with ease of manufacture
2006-10-12 08:46:03 · answer #9 · answered by custard 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Plates were first made of pottery and slices of tree.
Both create round shapes most easily.
2006-10-12 08:00:23 · answer #10 · answered by nora22000 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
most were made of clay and glass, so there were spun to make the plates, that is why the shape is round
2006-10-12 07:46:50 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋