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Canadians are cool
Table Manners
Double-Dipping on Trial
There’s negligible contamination, but it’s still unacceptable
Dear Helena,
At my office holiday party recently, a co-worker of mine dipped a chip into the guacamole, took a bite, and then dipped the chip again. I was repulsed. Then I looked around and saw lots of people were double-dipping, taking bites of carrot and celery sticks and then plunging them back into the various dips. I thought it was widely known that this is gross. If you need to dip a second time, you should at least reverse the dipped item so the unbitten side touches the dip. Am I wrong? —Single-Dipper
Dear Single-Dipper,
People frown on double-dipping because they assume it contaminates the dip for everyone else. But does it? Professor Nancy Zeller, director of biology teaching laboratories at American University, conducted a scientific investigation into the matter. Her students double-dipped in five different dips, including salsa and spinach-artichoke. After letting the dips sit for an hour, she tested a sample from each and found negligible amounts of bacteria.
Zeller explains: “When you bite a chip, you don’t put much of your lips on that chip. You tend to bite with your teeth, so you’re not introducing much saliva, which is where the bacteria are.”
Even if the double-dipper does leave behind traces of saliva, many dips are not hospitable to bacterial growth. The dips tested in the experiment, Zeller says, were “processed dips with a lot of additives and salt, which may help to keep bacteria in check.” Rick Rodgers, author of Dip It! Great Party Food to Spread, Spoon, and Scoop, says that although homemade dips don’t have additives, they often have other ingredients that discourage bacteria, including “acidic ingredients, such as vinegar and citrus juices [and] high levels of salt.”
It’s Still Gross
So double-dipping is unlikely to give anyone hepatitis. Nevertheless, many people will have a visceral negative reaction to it. “I would be shocked if someone double-dipped,” says Rodgers. “It’s bad etiquette.” If double-dipping were allowed, then, in his view, it would be a slippery slope to cavemanlike behavior: “Why not just stick your fingers directly in the dip and not use celery at all?”
Rodgers recommends reversing your crudité or chip and dipping the unbitten side, or breaking the item into pieces and dipping each one individually. But I disagree. Even if you do follow Rodgers’ reversal rule, people might not realize you have done so and may suspect you of double-dipping anyway.
A Host’s Responsibility
If you’re hosting a party serving dip, make sure you buy smaller chips, or cut vegetables into small sizes. Cauliflower should be broken into manageable florets, and celery, cucumber, and zucchini should be sliced into batons about the size of a baby-cut carrot.
Many hosts think dips are too unhygienic to serve at parties. Rodgers, a former caterer, says: “When you talk to a caterer they’ll say dips are a problem because of double-dipping, so they prefer to make hors d’oeuvres.” But if you’re not a team of caterers, crafting individual canapés is a lot of work. Dips are easier. More importantly, they help people connect. Many cultures have a bonding ritual that involves eating or drinking from the same vessel. In parts of South America, people might share a gourd of mate. At your holiday party, you share a tub of hummus.
Table Manners appears every Wednesday. Have a Table Manners question? Email Helena.
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Breaking the bit in half is definitely preferable to turning it around.
I was discussing this very issue many years ago over calamari at the short-lived Paul Lee's Chinese Kitchen in Mesa AZ. The waitress heard what we were talking about and added her two cents: "If you love 'em, you let 'em double dip." We realized that our young waitress just completely solved the dilemma for my entire circle of friends forevermore.
*This* is worth writing about? Sheesh, some people worry about the silliest things.
From the utmost source of everything marginally important: Seinfeld
"Its like sticking your whole face in the bowl"
I'm with molave... honestly, the drama that some people kick up when it comes to manners. While I do agree that double-dipping is a little uncouth and inconsiderate, to go so far as to be repulsed by it is a bit over the top. Honestly, if seeing double-dipping is that much of an ordeal to you, I think you need to get some real problems.
I agree with JK's waitress. When I'm amongst good friends or family, I have no qualms about dipping twice, nor do they.
Just how big are the chips you people are eating? Here's a solution, be an American...load that chip up with as much dip as it can structurally handle, then stuff it into your face, you dimure ninnies. Can't fit the while chip in your mouth? Wait till no one is looking and dip all you want. Know one likes the kind of person that worries about this crap anyway.
Really? Know one?
I don't find double-dipping to be especially disgusting (unless the double-dipper has a cold sore or something). I do, however, find it to be quite impolite, not to mention somewhat gluttonous - I mean, leave some dip for the rest of us.
For the sake of ettiquette, I don't won't double-dip.
Yup, know one. Sub question, do you hold out your pinky and put the chip on a doily or is there a special fork you're using that precludes the need?
Double dipping is just gross.
If I am at a party and somebody whines about a double dipper I am leaving that party...and I will take the dip with me.
I admit it that I, on occasion, have double dipper tendencies. If I see you, I will wait til' you're not looking.
i agree with stjamesb
especially when you have some snotty nose picken kid doing it
ok now no one say it because( it does not add extra flavor to the dip)
No chip -- I use my hand
For chips or other dip-ables with a flat or concave surface (and assuming there are no small plates around...), I load one strong one up with a bit-o-dip and then dip another dip-able in that dip, eating my makeshift plate last. Oh and, providing small plates and a spreader/spooner in the dip obviates the double-dipping issue completely.
Of course, this is my "in public" behaviour. As JK's waitress says, if we love each other, no one cares. My friends and I are the "reaching over onto each others' plates for sharing" types, though, and that's another issue Table Manners has already covered.
"Know one likes the kind of person that worries about this crap anyway. "
What a commentary on society. I guess NO ONE likes the kind of person that can't speak proper English either.
Nah, they like me plenty. And that is bad spelling, not improper English.
Double dipping is pretty disgusting. I'm with Nora on the spooner/small plates solution.
The grosser gross-out is my cousin who when we'd order nachos or wings he'd eat a few and then proceed to lick clean each of his finger and then plunge them right back into the dish. I'd bring it to his attention but he'd never remember. So my rule was to, if I could, remove as many off of the serving plate as possible to another plates and let him have at it.
For those of you who found it necessary to bash the people who frown on double dipping let me just say today they are double dipping your chips, tomorrow it may be your lover. Double dipping should be avoided if you have any social skills at all.
For those of you who don't like double dippers, stay away from the free popcorn and pretzels in bars. You don't even want to know how much grosser that food is than the dip that has been hit twice.
Foureyes137, it's not bad spelling. You didn't misspell "no," you used the wrong word because you don't know the difference.
Second, people can be contageous with a virus or bacteria before they show or feel symptoms. And herpes don't have to be active to be contageous. So double-dipping isn't just inconsiderate or gross, it shows that the dipper has no regard for his or her acquaintances.
Also Foureyes, you mean "obviates," not "precludes."
I know the difference (see), I simply type fast on message boards and do not give a crap. Also, don't get grammar facist on me, that is just another reason people do not like you. You're making it worse!
Additionally, in your profile you've misspelled spicy (spicey), couscus (cuscus), and Pillsbury (Pilsburry) and miscapitalized Coke (coke) and possibly butchered cantalope (Cantaloop) but for all I know that is some froo froo Venice frozen yogurt. You may want to fix those before you call out anyone else on their grammar or spelling.
Foureyes, you not only don't know the difference between know/no and precludes/obviates, but you have poor reading comprehension; I never called you out on your spelling.
Just your lack of education.
i think double-dipping is gross and disrespectful, and i don't touch a dip after i've seen someone do it. I will do the flip to other end thing with family or close friends if something's really big, like a breadstick or veggie, after pointing out that i'm dipping a clean end (even though truthfully my family and a few of my friends probably wouldn't care), but unless i want people to think i'm a social misfit, i sure wouldn't do it at a party of people.
it's alot to do with the perception of the thing. For all i know the host has dipped the chip bowl into rancid fat before filling it with chips with an unwashed hand...but hey , what the eyes don't see, the heart don't feel, haha. Once i see someone do something like double dip, i can't eat past it.
as for the kids issue......i once was at a party where everyone was happily eating some appetizer dip thingie, including one of the kids...following which her mother disclosed to us all about how the child was just then getting over a particularly bad bout of the Norwalk virus. I nearly ran screaming from the room....
This whole thing is absurd, but for people who are so concerned about the health dangers of double-dipping, why do you think that flipping the scoop around is any more sanitary. The germs on your hand are probably more of a danger than those in your mouth and the amount of contact the scoop has with your hands is a great deal more than it does with your mouth.
hmm i hope most people wash their hands before eating...anyhoo, i only do the flip with close family or like if i'm hanging out with a girlfriend sharing some chips and salsa, you know, like people you've probably shared a drink with in your youth, haha. not that those people deserve my germs either. it's not really about health dangers, as most things contagious, are contagious before the symptoms rear their ugly heads.
hey we could be on to a new diet trend, just pay someone to double dip or lick all your food before delivery and you'll never want to eat a thing. maybe we could hire that weird kid in school who'd lick the salt off all the chips or sunflower seeds so no one would take them (yes such a person existed, and no it was not me...shudder)
Flipping is not any better than double-dipping, as bob mentioned above, it's better manners to only dip once. If you're dining with someone close (eg. family or someone you kiss on a regular basis) I think it's OK. Whether or not you catch diseases from it, you're still putting traces of saliva into a communal dish, and most people in North America would find it gross. Other cultures don't seem to - I've seen people dig into shared mains with (used) chopsticks and it doesn't seem to be a big deal, or at least everyone is doing it.
as pointed out by HSK many non-north-american cultures don't seem to mind it
but by the same token those same cultures also don't bathe in the same ways we do either or have the same sanitary stds as we do
Here's another vote against double-dipping. Honestly, it's a no-brainer. And why can't these manner-less clods just get a small plate and scoop out a serving instead of diving into the serving bowl? Do they stand around the entree and repeatedly dip/spoon out of it too? All in the name of "friendly fun"?
It's disgusting to have to consume the saliva of another human being unless you are romantically involved with them. And to force someone else to eat your spit or trench mouth is just appalling. Regardless of whether there's "bacteria" in it or not.
And why have our standards of common decency dropped so low that a person, who still cares about another person's safety and hygiene, is ridiculed like some egghead who gets shoved in a junior high garbage can?
Can't a person simply be concerned that they don't contaminate food they serve/share with saliva, feces, or snot? And can't that same person try to avoid eating those things whenever possible?
Or is that just too much for the nasty double-dippers, finger-lickers, and snot-wipers to understand?
Bacteria is not necessarily the issue with double-dipping.
When my oldest daughter was a baby, I would often feed her directly from the baby food jar, then put the uneaten food into the refrigerator for a later meal, tightly capped. When I went back later to use the left-overs, inevitably, the entire contents of the little jar had turned to liquid. I finally learned that there are enzymes in our saliva that break down our food to help in the digestion process.
It grossed me out enough to never double-dip again.
When I put a dip out on the table, I announce to the room, here are small plates, so please take the serving spoon, help yourselves and use your plates. Sometimes i've even said, to one group in particular, No Double Dipping!
you know what nasty too is when the chip breaks in the dip and the person sticks their fingers in it to retrieve it
One of my managers at work will take a bite and double dip - or even worse, lick his fingers, then double dip - or even WORSE, lick his fingers and then hand-pick over several choices for his next food.
With the loud finger-licking slurping sound.
If you don't beat him to the veggie tray at a meeting, you might as well be frenching him in the supply room.
alexajord: That does sound truly nasty. Since he's your manager and criticizing him might not go well, time to set up an anonymous hotmail / gmail account and send him a message about this bad habit *grins*.
It's just not polite, plain and simple. But it's far better than sneezing in the dip.
what can i say, i must be an uncultured boor but double dipping doesn't bother me one bit. And i tend to feel sorry for the lover's of those who find it gross.
what can i say, i must be an uncultured boor but double dipping doesn't bother me one bit. And i tend to feel sorry for the lovers of those who find it gross.
what can i say, i must be an uncultured boor but double dipping doesn't bother me one bit. And i tend to feel sorry for the lovers of those who find it gross.
sorry about the multiple posts.... mea culpa
I dont agree with double dipping. I think its nasty if your at a party and you do it. I will do it at home with my hubby but even then I will not do it from the jar, I put it on a plate because who knows who may come over and want to eat from that jar.
its absurd to enshrine as "good manners" something that started as a joke on a comedy show about NY neurotics.
before that time double-dipping meant something altogether different (taking more than your share)
Id say get over it people
It is not neurotic to not want to eat someone else's saliva, snot, or feces (obviously from improper handwashing).
And "double-dipping" as a term may have been used first (or not) on Seinfeld, but the concept is still the same. It's disgusting.
Why are there so many people who object to common decency, respect for their fellow man, and a few common sense rules of thumb regarding "ettiquette"?
The well-mannered are being blamed for the "downfall of society" when in reality, there are just too many people who are just too stinking lazy and uncaring to bother with hygiene, manners, and common sense.
It's really pathetic when the person who knows their forks at dinner parties and chews with their mouth closed and DOESN'T DOUBLE DIP is the exception, not the rule.
Double dipping is something I cannot stand. (Besides smacking). I do agree with mldubose. I think differently in some ways. Double dipping is in a way like using the bathroom and getting something disgusting on you and not caring, then not washing you hands and rubbing them on the door handle. You are eaving germs and also putting pee or something else on something with WAY to many germs on it already.
It is pathetic that someone would not use there knife and just sit there trying to hold their for sideways and cut steak, ect. Or just picking up the whole thing up and just knawing on it.
And "double dipping" is just a test. It's a test to see if you were raised in a good family who actually knew manners, or in a hillbilly family where you are allowed to pick your nose and eat your boogers at the table.
I just am not one to care for anything else when it comes to manners.
Double dipping is something I cannot stand. (Besides smacking). I do agree with mldubose. I think differently in some ways. Double dipping is in a way like using the bathroom and getting something disgusting on you and not caring, then not washing your hands and rubbing them on the door handle. You are leaving germs and also putting pee or something else on something with WAY to many germs on it already.
It is pathetic that someone would not use there knife and just sit there trying to hold their for sideways and cut steak, ect. Or just picking up the whole thing up and just knawing on it.
And "double dipping" is just a test. It's a test to see if you were raised in a good family who actually knew manners, or in a hillbilly family where you are allowed to pick your nose and eat your boogers at the table.
I just am not one to care for anything else when it comes to manners.
Please dop not mind that I had posted two of my comments. I forgot to proof-read it.
Please do not mind that I had posted two of my comments. I forgot to proof-read it.
The contamination from double-dipping is not "negligable". A study at Clemson University shows that the contamination is comparable to kissing everyone at the party who double-dipped. If you are OK with that then, by all means, dig into that artichoke dip.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...
well belly acher as long as everyone at the party was a woman well....
How about a beautiful woman with strep, foodperv?
well if she looks like nigella lawson i'll think about it lol
Double dipping.... you honestly want my opinion? I probably don't even have the time to tell you what is wrong with double dipping! I would say I do not want to be around anyone who double dips. I am SO horrible with manners, but at least I know not to double dip.
With most people, it's either: A. Turn the chip B. Double dip or C. Break the chip until it's all gone. Most people would choose double dip.