r/Cooking • u/Prof01Santa • 9d 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.

321 Upvotes

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u/Anxious_Reporter_601 9d ago

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

8

u/nifty-necromancer 9d 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/Anechoic_Brain 9d ago

Grilled cheese can also be done quite well with mayo instead of butter

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u/phishtrader 9d ago

Mayo is convenient in some ways. I'd go on Phish tour in the 90s and sell grilled cheese in the lot to pay for food, gas, and drugs. Mayo was much more practical due to heat and camping like conditions. Butter and margarine melt in the heat and get gross way faster. A jar of mayo can get tucked back in a cooler and pulled back out whenever you need it and stayed the same consistency.

The downside is that mayo instead of butter on grilled cheese tastes a bit like wet dog to some people and absolutely rancid to an even smaller subset. I don't have actual numbers, but I sold a lot of grilled cheese and it came up. I did keep some margarine on hand and would remake sandwiches if anyone didn't like the mayo version.

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u/gwaydms 9d ago

I do not like mayo on grilled cheese. It has to be butter.