Just because you notice no difference doesn’t mean there isn’t one. When it comes to taste-buds we’re in a serious “your mileage may vary” world. Not everybody works the same. There are stories periodically about how people can’t tell the difference between low end and premium boozes, which is true for those who don’t know their way around that booze, but if you’ve trained you palate you can. Not everybody’s taste-buds work the same, both because of exposure and pure genetics, look at cilantro, people love it or hate it and studies on it show that the people who hate it SHOULD because their taste-buds detect cilantro as really nasty and bitter. You just might not have metal detecting taste-buds.
Silverware made of silver IS posh, it’s expensive and requires maintenance. Doesn’t make this a regular folks vs elites, many regular folks have a silver silverware set, gets used with the “good china”. I see it more as a “that stuff you only break out for the BIG meals might not be what you want to use.”
I have always heard that you should use your sterling flatware frequently, so that it eventually develops a nice patina...
I only have silver plate, and I know that eggs can harm and discolor it (not sure it’s true with sterling, but it would make sense that it is.)
I think it’s the sulfur in eggs; and I would think that anything that “invades” the silverware is going to change the taste of the food, as well.
-JT
I've read that Napoleon had aluminum tableware. Very rare in the day.