Thanks

Alexa

While folks back then served what they could grow- and cucumbers were easy to grow in many climates- still the produce outstripped the consumption. Backyard gardens often produced more cucumbers than any family could eat in one season. So they picked and pickled them- adapting and using old recipes that would appeal to their children's pallets, (always a huge concern). While we know now that cooking destroys many of the vitamins in any food product- back then they did not know that. So they used the bread and butter pickle as a substitute for fresh cucumber sandwiches. Which they seriously thought were nutritious.

I did see some eating Onions and Bread.

In the City everyone had a garden during the depression and during WW2.

Every patch of dirt had some sort of vegetable growing.

LOU

Thank you again.

Alexa

Bread, butter, & cucumber sandwiches are a hold over from our country's English heritage. They are still served all over the country as "tea sandwiches". White Flower Farms in Litchfield, Connecticut is famous for their annual spring sale featuring bread, butter, & cucumber sandwiches while people stroll the gardens.

/tricia

We lived on raw cucumber sandwiches (bread/butter/cucumber slices and salt and pepper) for lunch, as well as tomato sandwiches (not BLT, just bread/butter/sliced tomatoes/salt and pepper) all summer long, growing up in Kansas. Bread was homemade, and 8-10-cents per loaf if bought from the store.

I always thought the cucumber sandwich was an English influence because my mother was from Canada and I don't remember other families in our neighborhood ever eating cucumber sandwiches like we did.

-Grainlady

If you go to a tea garden in California, it will be either Japanese or Chinese - not English! The tea garden in San Antonio was also originally Japanese. Historically, Germans and Italians have outnumbered the English in the number of immigrants who came here. After a certain time, the English started going to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and there weren't enough left to make that much of an influence here, except on the East Coast.

Lars

I have used them in a Sandwich and Hoagies but always with Lunchmeat and Cheese.

But there is something wrong with me ???

Lou

I was born & raised in California. I ate cucumber sandwiches frequently growing up.

/tricia

I would assume that your mother made the cucumber sandwiches - I was referring to never having seen them on a menu. They may very well be common here, and I just never have happened to see them. I was always intrigued by them whenever I would hear about them while watching an English movie - I think they are mentioned in The Importance of Being Ernest, but I had always thought that cucumber or watercress sandwiches were something of a joke and not something that anyone actually ate! I used to grow watercress in my pond in Venice, but I never made sandwiches out of it, although I added it to sandwiches, as I did with arugula.

Lars

I just looked in a couple of old cookbooks....and in the Boston cookbook 1942 edition, there was a recipe for bread and butter pickles....but in another edition dated 1914 there wasn't such a recipe.
I think it unlikely that bread and butter pickles were a depression thing... and made it into a cook book that quickly.

Ann

I've never made them with bread and butter pickles but have made cucumber sandwiches at home too.

Yes they are! And that movie is what I always think of when I hear of cucumber sandwiches. He was hungry and ate them all up even though they were meant for his Aunt who was coming to visit. Then he made up some story (I can't remember) about why there weren't any cucumber sandwiches for her, but she saw right through his lies. I don't remember the exact dialog but I do remember it being pretty entertaining.