When you have had your lunch in the kitchen.....

But what do you do in a restaurant where they put the 'jus' or 'coulis' all over the plate and a spoon will not scoop it up? Or take your spoon to get up the gravy and you haven't got any bread? I lick the top of the yogurt, lick out the cake mixing bowl and the K beater, (chipped a front tooth doing that) now the children have left home. I think I'm to old to care now. I do mind my manners in public.

DH and I both lick the plates sometimes particularly after baked beans. It's much more efficient than the finger swipe. My mother sometimes let us, as children, lick our plates if there were no visitors and a particularly delicious gravy, and we all grew up knowing that it was a special dispensation and not normal behaviour! We all have good party manners too.

We should probably have done it before...

Well, I hope you all wash your hands after all this finger licking!

I would never dare lick a plate - the ghosts of parents and grand parents would haunt me forever! (But I do run a finger around - just occasionally)

I can't do it either janer, my mum would have a fit!

Never lick the plate but nearly always drink the last soup and milk from the cereal out of the bowl.

I can honestly say that I've never licked a plate or knife, and never had the urge to do so.

But I can't resist sliding a finger on the knife after slavering cream cheese on a crispbread and would certainly dab a licked finger to get the last of cake crumbs.

I can't do it, I just get a mental picture of my mother saying to my sister 'You are not a dog'.

Yes, I lick my plate sometimes. I've even been known to do it with others present, saying "Look away now" - especially when I've had pancakes with syrup and cream

Years ago when my 2 children were teenagers, I babysat 2 little boys from next door at short notice. They were new neighbours, we didn't know them well at all, but their mum was in a jam and had asked me to look after them for a couple of hours. I made pancakes that day. When the stack was all gone, the two little ones passed a cheeky, conspiratorial look between them and both simultaneously started licking their plates. It was the best compliment for my pancakes and gave us all a laugh. They were happy, confident children.

Because, in what way does someone licking a plate clean hurt anyone else? Proper manners are about not doing something that will hurt someone else, aren't they? You know, being considerate. There's nothing yucky, really, about eating every scrap of your food. I bet poor people, who didn't have enough, never thought so, whereas rich people who could afford to waste and leave something on the plate.... it was a way of announcing one had more food than one needed and one was never hungry enough to want every crumb.

Snobs did. That's who.

That's the problem, isn't it. Who on earth thought up all those silly restricting manners.

Well if the plate is clean enough to put the food on in the first place it should be clean enough to lick. I cannot see what the problem is.

ffinochio is right though, it is hard to lick a plate without getting the dinner remains on your nose or chin.

Finger swiping is far more effective.
You need to do it where you cannot be seen though it is very bad manners.

No! Never. But DBH does - I was appalled! He says it was going to boarding school that did it. Not enough staff sitting nearby keeping an eye on your table manners, unlike my parents with their eagle eyes. I think it was more likely that his mother couldn't care less what they did as long as she could carry on reading her book.

When my boys were little they would always eagerly ask for the "lickers" after I had made a sponge cake. Said boys are now in their 40s. Some months ago they were both sitting at my kitchen table whilst I was baking. I scraped the bowl and the beaters clean and as usual my little dog was sitting at my feet looking up at me in anticipation. As I gave the dog his treat of left over cake mixture, I glanced at my two middle aged sons and the looks on their faces made me hoot with laughter - sheer, unadulterated jealousy!

I am a finger swiper on occasion too, but not a licker!

No because even if DH is out the cook, housekeeper or butler might walk in

One of the joys of living alone !

As a child I always licked my plate after eating something I'd really enjoyed, as did my siblings.

Good grief! Someone else does it too! I'm amazed that Jingle should confess to such sluttish behaviour. I step away from the window and lick most of my plates. My mother taught me never to waste food but she'd turn in her grave if she knew.

A quick swipe with the dishcloth fixes the end of the nose.

OH! Actually, I use a spoon on a yogurt pot lid. [snooty sniff]

Ana anything eggy-bacony-cheesey-tomato-y does it for me.

#cantwastecaloriesonadiet

I am a finger runner too if there is left over gravy or sauce on the plate. I live alone so can do as I please, even burping if I wish. I think if I licked the plate I would get a dirty nose, as I have what my mother described as a 'Princess Anne' conk!

I didn't make it clear, that no, I don't lick plates. I do lick lids and have been known to run a finger round a bowl that's had a tasty desert in.