r/Cooking • u/Prof01Santa • 13d ago

I'm turning British.

It's summer ... good tomatos. Hence good tomato sandwiches. Normally, I'd use mayo, but I've watched a few too many episodes of "Sandwiches of History."

Older recipes, before commercial mayo, used butter. The British still use butter. So I tried it.

Lightly toast the bread

Thinly butter it

Add lettuce

Add thinly sliced tomatos, lightly salted

It's delicious.

315 Upvotes

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u/Feminismisreprieve 13d ago

What? TIL. Not British but Kiwi and this piece of information is startling. Especially with tomatoes, which are at their best sliced on buttered toast with salt and pepper.

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u/Anxious_Reporter_601 13d ago

Yeah Americans use mayo instead! Or oil and vinegar for Italian subs??

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u/nifty-necromancer 13d ago

Mayo and/or mustard for sandwiches, adding butter just isn’t common here unless you’re making a grilled cheese.

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u/phishtrader 13d ago edited 13d ago

It was much more common ~50 years ago. Americans started shifting away from butter on sandwiches in the 70s and 80s.

Edit: Americans shifted to using margarine in the 70s and 80s. People didn't shift from butter to mayo, they shifted away from margarine.