Breadcrumbs: Part 1 – The Crumb Scraper

On clean tables, white tablecloths, and elitism

The following is adapted from a guest post I wrote for the Wordloaf newsletter. It is the first part of a two part series. Wordloaf is an excellent, insightful newsletter all about bread, including recipes, think pieces, and much more. It’s a wonderful read for any bread lover, and let’s be honest, who isn’t a bread lover?

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John Henry Miller hated crumbs. They’d get all over the tables at his Miller Brothers Restaurant, one of the hottest and fanciest spots in early 20^th century Baltimore. As a fine dining establishment, Miller Brothers’ reputation depended in part upon its service and cleanliness.

Frustrated by how difficult it was to clean crumbs off a table during a meal, Miller looked for a solution. But he couldn’t find one that was efficient and wouldn’t disturb the guests, so he invented the “Crumb Scraper” in 1939.

Diagram for the invention from Miller’s patent

Tools are often pathways to efficiency. The kitchen tool, while far from new, came into its own in the mid-1800s. With the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution, metal tool production became easy and cheap, enabling inventors to develop a plethora of special culinary devices. The raisin seeder. The eggbeater. And, of course, the crumb scraper. Each invention claimed to save users time and energy.

Miller’s scraper — a six-inch curved piece of metal — wasn’t the first. The tabletop “crumber” dates to Victorian England, when the tool was an elaborate silver brush and pan set. Miller invented his metal crumber because, in his words, the brush and pan were “cumbersome” and “disturb[ed] the diners at the table in its use, because of the relatively large area of operation required by them.” Miller’s smaller one-piece crumber could be used more inconspicuously. It’s still in use today.

Example of a Victorian style table brush and pan set

No matter the design — Miller’s or the Victorian one — the crumber is a status symbol. In Victorian England, aristocratic households used them to show off their wealth at the dinner table. And, in the 20^th century, the crumber was commonly found in fine dining restaurants. The purpose, always the same: Clean white tablecloths.

In the 15^th century, the European aristocracy — seeking a way to distinguish their tables from those of commonfolk — turned to the white tablecloth as a sign of stature. At the time, it was difficult to keep a tablecloth white, so having a fresh, white tablecloth was a sign of wealth. Wealth that enabled a household to hire a large staff to keep tablecloths clean. Wealth that enabled a household to buy expensive white linens. Today, the white tablecloth is so embedded within our understanding of fine dining that, according to a 2019 Food Quality and Preference study, many modern diners consider table linen an important element of the restaurant dining experience.

The persistence of the white tablecloth has lead to the persistence of the crumber. The tool, by efficiently maintaining tablecloth cleanliness, also maintained elegance in upper class dining experiences.

However, today, white tablecloths are going out of style. Many fine dining restaurants are now trending toward nice table tops made of marble or fine wood, best cleaned with a folded napkin rather than a metal scraper.

So, while the scraper may be facing extinction, the idea of a clean table lives on.

Part two coming soon – or read the full post now at Wordloaf.