baffled

[deird1]

...do Americans not put butter on their sandwiches?

And why on earth not?

Comments

[kerkevik_2014]

I don't.

Does that make me American?

Actually, to be fair, if I eat sandwiches at all I buy them, usually cheap sell-by date, ones.

Mostly because I only use garlic butter, but also because when I buy bread, it's in non-sliced loaves that I rip chunks off of.

Maybe I'm just weird.

Does THAT make me American?

;-)

kerk

[melannen]

I do, but then I'm weird.

I suspect it's because we usually put on either peanut butter or mayonnaise instead.

[fenchurch]

Nope, generally not. I'll put it on cucumber sandwiches or even tomato sandwiches, but that's because I had a Canadian friend when I was a teenager and she's the one who introduced me to those two types of sandwiches in the first place.

[shehasathree]

Bc they usually put something else on instead? I actually have no idea and am just guessing.

I grew up in a household where we didn't eat white bread and sandwiches never had butter on them (unless Dad was making those particular sandwiches with a very thin layer of butter and honey in top), and found it weird and gross the way the canteen (not that I was allowed to eat from there) and other anglo families made sandwiches.

It's impossible to disentangle what was my mother's personal 'taste' from what she thought was healthy/unhealthy/financially prudent, especially since she always just presented whatever she thought was healthy and right as a Truth. It took me until I was... In my twenties to realise that I actually quite enjoyed butter/etc on toast, under the right circumstances. (Just in time to be not-able to eat it, bc: food intolerances. Yaaaay.)

[rebcake]

Mayonnaise takes the place of butter on most sandwiches in the US of A. It's the same principle: moistens the bread, adds a bit of that good "mouth feel" thing you get from fats. Mayonnaise adds a subtle tanginess to the flavor. Some people decidedly hate it.

[lycomingst]

When I was a teen I went to a friend's house and her mother put butter on sandwiches as a matter of course. I thought that was very odd, but then, I don't particularly like butter.

[vass]

Relatedly, did you know that in American English the L in "almond" isn't silent? They say "all-mond".

[velvetwhip]

I slather the bread in when I make grilled cheese. Does that count?

[redsixwing]

Most people put mayonnaise instead, which I find to be a loathsome habit.

I don't eat a lot of sandwiches. >.>

[immer_am_lesen]

Do you actually put butter on, or marge? I always like the idea of buttering my bread/ toast, but the practicality of soft margarine means it wins out over butter that either needs softening first, or otherwise tears your bread to pieces.

PS- you've never heard 'ahmnd' pronounced 'allmnd' by Americans? And I thought you watched a lot of US telly shows. :)

[elisi]

Well, this has been an eye-opening post/threads.

(Scandinavian/British here, so butter is a given.)

[(Anonymous)]

This is curiouswombat - since the great computer crash I have lost my DW password.

I am amazed, like you, at the idea of making sandwiches without butter!

And of lettuce as a default ingredient. I mean cheese and pickle with no butter and with lettuce? Or ham and pickle.

I don't put butter on bacon sandwiches though - just tomato sauce!

[beer_good_foamy]

Since the Swedish word for "sandwich" literally contains the word "butter" (and the USians have imported it, too - smörgåsbord) this is way too weird for me to wrap my head around.

[smurasaki]

Some do. My grandmother always did. Some use mayo or whatever the stuff that isn't mayo but is sort of like it is called. (I am blanking on the not-mayo stuff at the moment.) Others use mustard.

Assuming of course this is savory sandwiches we're talking about. I don't think I've ever seen a fellow American put anything but peanut butter and jelly on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

It also occurs to me that I have no idea what a sandwich with butter would even taste like. (I have always used mustard.) ???

Laney thinks...

[(Anonymous)]

... is this why they have such trouble grasping the concept of vegemite? I didnt realise, when Hugh Jackman explained to Jimmy Fallon the need to butter one's toast before applying vegemite, that this was a strp that might otherwise be unknowingly skipped...