---
title: Scraping
date: "2023-10-29T04:30:10Z"
lastmod: "2023-10-29T04:30:11Z"
categories:
  - funny
  - how-i-do-things
wp_id: 3453
description: "This comic essay elevates food scraping into an art form, complete with material science, vessel selection, utensil strategy, and a deeply personal defense of getting every last bit."
keywords: ["food habits", "scraping", "humor", "dessert", "efficiency", "manners"]
---

![Scraping](/blog/assets/DALL·E-2023-10-29-11.04.58-Photo-of-an-empty-white-ceramic-plate-that-once-held-a-hot-chocolate-brownie-sizzler-taken-from-a-lower-angle-like-a-childs-perspective.-The-plate-i.webp)

I was at Cream Centre with my father on a Sunday afternoon. We'd finished a light lunch and were debating dessert. (He has triglycerides. I have cholesterol.) This was my fifth visit this year, and I had abstained so far. I couldn't any longer.

I ordered a Sizzling Brownie Sundae. But not for reasons you might think.

![](/blog/assets/image-76.webp)

---

Expertise comes from experience. I scrape food more than 99% of the people I know. So, I consider myself an expert. Here's a guide on the art of scraping.

### Why scrape food?

- You get to eat every last bit
- Food isn't wasted
- You can eat longer (and no do whatever else you have to)
- It's a motivating challenge to get every last bit
- Bonus: It annoys people

### What foods are scrapable?

![](/blog/assets/image-77.webp)

Semi-solids are the easiest to scrape. The best kind is the cohesive semi-solid. It's sticky but sticks to itself more than the vessel. These are usually foods that solidify over time. Examples include:

- **Baked cheese**. It's great when cheese falls off the pizza or pasta on to the plate. You can scrape it off of your (or others') plates.
- **Molten chocolate**. It has the added bonus that you can [lick](/blog/licking/) it at the end, too.
- [**Pasta water**](https://www.google.com/search?q=pasta+water) (or noodles water). It eventually thickens into something scrapable.
- **Spreads** like peanut butter, Nutella, jam, chutney. Especially on the sides of the glass bottles they come in.
- **Others** like yogurt, cake batter, dried tomato sauce, mashed potatoes, hardened honey on ice cream, ... the list is endless!

**Avoid crumbly stuff**. These stick to the vessel but become brittle and break when scraped. This includes toast, pizza, biscuits, rice, muffins, pie, quiche, cookies, etc. You could pick large crumbs and [lick](/blog/licking/) small crumbs in shallow vessels. But scraping them and pouring into your mouth might be the best overall strategy for this category.

**Avoid loose stuff**. They'll fall off from your knife or fork, or melt when scraped. This includes curd, whipped cream, custard, panna cotta, soft jelly, tiramisu, soft boiled eggs, etc. [Licking](/blog/licking/) is a better strategy here.

You could combine the crumbly stuff with loose stuff to create a cohesive mix. Add curd to granola. Add whipped cream to biscuit crumbs. Add curd to pizza crumbs (and since I eat [Maggi with curd](https://x.com/acnymph/status/1328380335491477505?s=20), this makes sense). This makes it a lot more scrapable.

### What vessels to pick?

**Shape: Flat, smooth vessels** are the best (e.g., ceramic or wooden plates or bowls.) Avoid deep vessels like glasses, especially curved ones. They're hard to get a long scrape against. Definitely avoid vessels with ridges. Disposable plastic containers like below are among the worst. Food gets stuck in the ridges and since there are a dozen ridges on each side, you have to scrape 48 times just for a first pass. (This might be a good challenge, though.)

![](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61J8VeualvL._AC_SX522_.jpg)

**Material: Hard vessels** are better than soft ones. Prefer wood, metal, ceramic, and hard plastic. Avoid thin plastic that bends. Avoid paper (it bends and soaks). Banana leaves tear when scraped.

Avoid non-stick vessels. The coating wears off when scraping.

### What to scrape with?

**Knives are the best**. They are sharp enough to separate the food from the vessel and flat enough that you can pile enough food on top of it.

**Forks are OK**. Their edges can scrape reasonably well, and their tips can poke into corners. But it's hard to pile up much food to pick up.

**Spoons not ideal**. They aren't sharp enough, and too curved for scraping long slices. But if you want to take your time with it, they're great.

### The sizzling chocolate brownie

My dish arrived. Burning with chocolate. My father just had some brownie, leaving all the molten chocolate to me. On a flat wooden plate. With a knife. For an hour.

Heaven.