A Cut Above The Rest...

Photo © Rob Jones

An ultimate BLT … made with delicious bacon, tomatoes and lettuce straight out of a friend’s garden. Lovingly layered and carefully crafted. I placed my palm on the top to compact the bready-mayonnaisy goodness, the filling oozing unapologetically from the sides, and then ….. I froze…

How should I cut it?

It was a sudden crisis of confidence? More than that, a cultural confusion, a social hesitation.

As kids we didn’t cut at all. Just grabbed-and-went, with our Mum yelling after us to pick up the inevitable spillage.

Later, for practical reasons I cut the sandwich into four quarters - squares. It seemed logical. This was in a time when all bread was square, evilly unhealthy, and mainly came from a packet. Home made ‘craft’ bread was an occasional luxury. Mainly because it never survived more than six inches out of the oven before the gannets demolished it all.

When I mixed in more in polite society, I cut the sandwiches in four diagonally. It was clearly more refined (Pronounced re-frayn-ed).

Then came the explosion in bread types, and how it was cut all seemed to become irrelevant.

But sliced manufactured bread will always be a guilty pleasure.

Anyhow - before cutting my sandwiches, I ran to the internet in panic and looked up the etiqette regarding sandwich cutting.

So.. it turns out - according to a YouGov poll made for National Sandwich Day a couple of years ago…

The vast majority of Brits (60%) like their sandwiches cut into rectangles rather than the fancier triangle.

However - 5% opt for another shape ?????

2% don’t know.

5% have never made a sandwich in their lives. (Gasp)

But there’s more.

It seems, women are marginally more likely than men to favour triangular sandwiches.

Cheese is the runaway favourite for a sandwich (36%). Then comes mayonnaise (20% - really, on its own?), ham (16%), tomato (15%) with egg, tuna and chicken in joint 5th (11%).

Bacon’s on 9% and lettuce is 8%

Back to the BLT - which should surely should be the sum of mayo, bacon, lettuce and tomato - adds up to 52%.

Only 4% cut the crusts off.

Readers … I cut the sandwich into triangles and kept the crusts!

RJ