On Sun, 31 Jan 2010 07:37:56 -0600, Melba's Jammin' wrote:

> In article >,
> Sqwertz > wrote:
>
>> Fork: Cast aluminum made in Italy. Very light and strong. The
>> times are quite substantial and the backs of them come to a sharp
>> point, unlike any other forks I've seen. Great for shredding meats
>> and incorporating flour and shortening. It would also cut sheets of
>> pasta into ribbons, I suspect. I'm wondering if this fork has a
>> special use in the Italian kitchen.
>
> Cool fork! Perhaps it is a pastry blending fork. My first thought was
> simply a large meat fork for serving -- I have a couple but not with
> sharp on the back of the tines.

Two votes for pastry fork. That's what I think, too (3 votes).
That why I mentioned it being good for blending shortening/flour.
It's strong, has a wide stance, and has those sharp undersides to
the tines.

-sw