Old Fashioned Sandwiches

Here’s how to make delicious sandwiches the old fashioned way! People eat sandwiches all the time and these days, we have them crammed full with lots of different flavours.

In T’good old days, posh sandwiches were very simple. Only delicate flavours were used, so as not to detract from the real stars of the occasion – bread, best butter and of course, tea! (The Victorians were mad about tea.)

Here’s a recipe for one of the Victorians’ favourite sandwiches – cucumber.  Sounds weird, I know, but try them – they’re surprisingly tasty.

Ingredients

2 slices of white thinly sliced bread for each person
Butter (it needs to be soft, so leave it out of the fridge for at least an hour)
A cucumber

Equipment

A sharp knife (to slice the cucumber and cut the bread)
A butter knife (a blunt knife, so it’s easy to butter with)
A chopping board
A plate and a doily to serve the sandwiches (not a dolly, a doily)

What to do

1. First cut the crusts off the bread. (Victorians thought that crusts were very common!)

2. Butter the bread on one side of each slice.  This will be easy, as long as the butter is soft.

3. Cut a chunk off the cucumber. Carefully cut the dark green edges off of it. Then cut the remaining light green cucumber into slices, about as thin as a 10 pence piece.

4. Take a slice of bread, butter side up.  Arrange a layer of cucumber slices on top and top it with a second slice of bread.  Gently press down on the sandwich to squash it together a little bit.

5. Cut the sandwich into small shapes – triangles or squares are the easiest.  Each sandwich should be no more than two bites big!

6. Make the rest of the sandwiches in the same way.  Then elegantly pile them onto your doily and take them to the table, before scoffing them down. Make sure you keep your little finger in the air as you do so.

Other old fashioned sandwiches to try:-

Ham – thinly sliced
Cream cheese and cress
Roast chicken – thinly sliced

Just remember – keep it dainty and absolutely no chilli sauce!

Related Recipes

All of these will go really well with homemade coleslaw

… and to go with their tea, Victorians always had cakes – try homemade shortbread or very easy chocolate fudge cakes.