Sandwiches: how should they be cut?

[NinjaChick]

For the sake of this question, imagine you wander into the kitchen and make yourself a sandwich. You've got your rather dull loaf of store-bought bread. Maybe it's PB&J on white bread, or you're getting in touch with your inner New Yorker and you slap some pastrami on rye. Whatever. You make a tasty sandwich.

What do you do before you eat it? For clarification:
*Vertical meaning cut so that you end up with rounded 'top' crust on both halves.
*Horizontal, meaning half your sandwich has only 'top' crust and the other only bottom.
*Diagonally, from corner to corner.

[IvoryTowerDenizen]

Quarters, either squares or triangles.

[Yllaria]

The same way you do toast - by heraldic field division (http://www.khevron.com/). (Scroll down halfway - click for a larger version.)

Personally, I tend to go for quarterly. Especially if there's a big, sliding slice of tomato in it.

[Alpha Twit]

Depends on the bread shape. My usual sandwich loaf is somewhat wider than it is tall. These sandwiches I cut vertically. With a more perfectly square slice, I'll cut diagonally.

If I'm really concerned about being proper then I'll cut it into 13 exactly identical pieces. A protractor and laser surface mapping gear is essential for this task. The thirteenth piece is of course sacrificed to Slaanesh as a mark of respect and fealty.

[Harmonious Discord]

Look at the sandwich with the crust as up and perpendicular right of the center as 0 degrees like a standard graph. Slice at about 60 degrees and 240 degrees.

[nikonikosuru]

Diagonally, and then again into triangles if desired. Sandwiches just taste better that way.

[Surly Chick]

Depends on the type of sandwich. Grilled cheese always has to be cut diagonally. All other sandwiches get a vertical cut.

[Oredigger77]

Unless I can't hold the sandwich together I don't cut it at all. When i do make a monstrous sandwich that requires both hands to hold half of it then I'm cut it vertically.

[C3]

If it's for me, for lunch, I don't cut it at all. If it's for dinner, I get fancy and cut diagonally.

For my kids, it's crust off, four squares (per their request).

[thirdwarning]

Depends on the type of sandwich. Grilled cheese always has to be cut diagonally. All other sandwiches get a vertical cut.

Yeah, why is that, exactly? Something about grilled cheese that needs to be cut on the diagonal, but what? I don't know, but it just isn't right any other way.

[DCnDC]

Yeah, why is that, exactly? Something about grilled cheese that needs to be cut on the diagonal, but what? I don't know, but it just isn't right any other way.

Expose the most amount of cheese maybe?

[Suburban Plankton]

I don't cut my sandwiches.

[maladroit]

It's a better shape for dipping in the tomato soup maybe?

[Hal Briston]

When I first started making sandwiches for The Littlest Briston, I always cut them into four squares. Then one day, in a bid to change things up a bit, I cut them into triangles. She was hooked -- that's the only way she wanted them.

Recently, my wife made her a sandwich and forgot about how imperative it was that she cut it into triangles, and made the first cut down the middle. TLB saw this and flipped out -- her world was ending...until mommy told her she was cutting her sandwich into crazy triangles. TLB was amazed, and that's how she always requests we cut her sandwiches now.

I didn't see anything that accurately depicts them, so here's how "crazy trianges" (http://www.sirblah.com/misc/sandwich-cut.jpg) are made.

[Shagnasty]

Square and rectangular cuts do taste gross but even that is better than a sandwich I cut myself. I always get the nearest female to cut my sandwich for me so that I can eat it.

[Rushgeekgirl]

The only time I'd cut a sandwich is for a little kid. That would be diagonally.

[DCnDC]

Interesting article about this very subject here (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120914097). According to them, diagonal cuts maximize crust-free surface. Makes sense, I guess.

[silenus]

But, but...the crust is the best part!

[Teacake]

Oh no! I'm the only person who cuts their sandwich in half horizontally! I think I'm also the first British person to respond. Coincidence...?! On different breads, I prefer different crusts. Cheap white bread quite often has a less nice top, so I eat that first. Home made bread usually has a nice top, so I eat it last. Cutting it in half horizontally makes sure I don't accidentally eat all the best bit first. I do cut my cheese (or whatever) toasties in half diagonally, but I think that's because the old fashioned toasty machines always cut them diagonally. If it's a grilled cheese sandwich (not a toasty), I still cut it in half horizontally. The exception is cucumber sandwiches, which should always be cut into triangles.

[Ferret Herder]

But, but...the crust is the best part!
When I was a kid, my mom always told me that the crust had more nutrients in it and I should eat it. It's amazing how old I was before I actually thought hard about that statement and realized... no it doesn't! It's just the cooked outside part! :smack:

[DCnDC]

...I do cut my cheese (or whatever) toasties in half diagonally, but I think that's because the old fashioned toasty machines always cut them diagonally. If it's a grilled cheese sandwich (not a toasty), I still cut it in half horizontally. The exception is cucumber sandwiches, which should always be cut into triangles.

Question from an ignorant American: what is a cheese toasty?

[Rigamarole]

I don't see much point in cutting a sandwich in half if you intend to eat both halves anyway. That's something you do for kids or adults who eat like birds. (OK - or at a restaurant where they serve up ridiculously big and calorie-laden monstrosities)

In the case that a sandwich has to be cut, diagonally all the way.

[Hal Briston]

Question from an ignorant American: what is a cheese toasty?Heh...well, it doesn't follow with Teacake's wording, but Urban Dictionary says:
cheese toasty
Awkward and demeaning method of referring to the heavenly piece of culinary art known as a grilled cheese sandwich.
1. Mark keeps referring to my beautiful grilled cheese sandwich as a cheese toasty and its feelings are starting to get hurt.

[Lynn Bodoni]

I usually cut sandwiches diagonally. Grilled cheese sandwiches get cut into quarters, diagonally, because that's the way my mother used to do it. If it's rye bread, or some other bread that's more rectangular than square, it has to be cut as Harmonious Discord describes, as a compromise between diagonal and horizontal.

[hogarth]

Oh no! I'm the only person who cuts their sandwich in half horizontally! I think I'm also the first British person to respond. Coincidence...?! On different breads, I prefer different crusts. Cheap white bread quite often has a less nice top, so I eat that first. Home made bread usually has a nice top, so I eat it last. Cutting it in half horizontally makes sure I don't accidentally eat all the best bit first.
That's exactly the reason I cut it vertically -- if each half-sandwich has some good crust and some less-good crust, I won't eat all of the best bit first.

By the way, growing up my mother cut sandwiches horizontally and sandwiches in restaurants were cut diagonally. I thought I invented cutting sandwiches vertically!

[Robot Arm]

To use the terminology of the poll, I cut mine somewhere in between vertical and diagonal. It's a compromise between symmetrical presentation, mouth accessibility, and optimal crust/bread ratio.

[Hockey Monkey]

I do not cut my sandwiches in half. I eat all the crust off around the sandwich till I'm left with the yummy middle to finish with. (Except grilled cheese where a bit of crust must be left to hold on to so all the cheese doesn't run out.)

[Angel of the Lord]

Diagonal, unless it's PB&J. I don't cut those 'cause it's messy.

[sandra_nz]

Definitely agree that cheese toasties need to be cut diagonally!

Of course, what we need next is a sandwich quantity poll, viz, if you cut your sandwich in two, do you now have two sandwiches?

[Projammer]

I do not cut my sandwiches in half. I eat all the crust off around the sandwich till I'm left with the yummy middle to finish with. (Except grilled cheese where a bit of crust must be left to hold on to so all the cheese doesn't run out.)It is obvious that you are a sock monkey because you are posting as me. That is exactly how I eat my sandwiches.

[Not a Platypus]

It depends on my mood and I have no preference, though I see no reason to cut crusts off. Such a waste of good sandwich!

[gladtobeblazed]

I prefer to cut in half vertically. Most bread that I use has a distinct upper crust, and I like my sandwich halves to be identical. If I cut diagonally then one piece will have only upper crust. That makes no sense, each piece need to be equal, otherwise it's discrimination or something.

[the lone cashew]

If you have a *lot of substance in your sandwich, stacked high so that it's hard to take a bite, you don't cut them at all lest they fall apart. If they were to be cut, then horizontally, of course.

Those less exciting rectangles to the zesty sandwich triangles will help keep sandwich items where they belong - inside the sammitch hand and not in your lap.

[Teacake]

DCnDC - This (http://homagedufromage.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/cheese-toastie.jpg) is a (particularly nasty-looking) cheese toasty. Basically there are (were?) these machines, a little like a George Foreman grill, with clamshell-type hot plates top and bottom, heavily indented so that they squashed your sandwich into a weird shape, almost cut all the way through diagonally. You butter both sides of the bread, put the bottom slice in, fill it with cheese or whatever, then put on the top slice and close the machine until it's appropriately toasted. Then you eat it, possibly dipped in ketchup. Then you have a heart attack.

[NinjaChick]

I prefer to cut in half vertically. Most bread that I use has a distinct upper crust, and I like my sandwich halves to be identical. If I cut diagonally then one piece will have only upper crust. That makes no sense, each piece need to be equal, otherwise it's discrimination or something.
See, this is my way of thinking.

Sandwiches need to be cut, because...well, thinking about it, it seems the only reason is "because that's how mom did it when I was a kid". But that's reason enough, plus I guess it gives a more appealing entry-point*. But the asymmetry of diagonally or horizontally sliced bread just bothers me - I've never seen a loaf of bread where you can't make some distinction between top and bottom, and it's just not right on some deep moral level to have a "bottom" half and a "top" half. Slicing further into quarters or triangles would just feel like far too much effort for a sandwich, so vertical it is.

And if you have enough sandwich guts that spillage is an issue, you shouldn't be eating it on bread anyway, that belongs on a roll of some sort, which is an entirely different type of sandwich.

*Though this thread has already given us someone who eats sandwiches circularly-ish, and I've got a friend who insists on eating pizza crust-first, so obviously YMMV.

[DCnDC]

DCnDC - This (http://homagedufromage.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/cheese-toastie.jpg) is a (particularly nasty-looking) cheese toasty. Basically there are (were?) these machines, a little like a George Foreman grill, with clamshell-type hot plates top and bottom, heavily indented so that they squashed your sandwich into a weird shape, almost cut all the way through diagonally. You butter both sides of the bread, put the bottom slice in, fill it with cheese or whatever, then put on the top slice and close the machine until it's appropriately toasted. Then you eat it, possibly dipped in ketchup. Then you have a heart attack.

Aha. Very nice. Think I saw a late-night infomercial for a similar device a while back.

[LegsAkimbo]

Great. Now next time I make a simple sandwich to have a simple lunch, I have to spend all kinds of time deciding how I want to cut it.

[Ellen Cherry]

Interesting article about this very subject here (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120914097). According to them, diagonal cuts maximize crust-free surface. Makes sense, I guess.

This is my reason, and when as a wee lass I asked about down the middle versus diagonal cut, the reason I was told.

Plus it's prettier, an important luncheon consideration.

[Green Bean]

Wait a minute here--some of you cut your sandwiches horizontally?? :eek:

That's just sick. You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

[amarone]

Generally vertically, although cucumber sandwiches and smoked salmon sandwiches should have the crusts cut off and then be quartered diagonally.

[TBG]

Diagonally just seems "right" to me.

I also ticked "no crusts" because that's how I insisted mom make them as a kid, though these days I don't really require it. (sometimes I will eat to the crust then stop though)

[rowrrbazzle]

I only make sandwiches occasionally, and then I almost always have them on kaiser rolls, which I don't cut. When I was young, my mother always used regular white bread and would cut sandwiches horizontally. There was one exception: BLTs. She'd cut these diagonally.

[needscoffee]

Like SurlyChick, vertically except for grilled cheese.

Diagonally feels like there's too much crust per inner. At the end you're left with nothing but crust.

[Uncle Brother Walker]

I follow the symmetry idea as well. The bread I buy is generally square shaped loaf; the bakers do something or other to make it more or less square. There is usually very little indentation, so I cut it vertically to make both halves equal. If I am going to take my time and the fixin's aren't drippy and messy, I cut it. If it is some honking Dagwood El Grande sandwich, it shouldn't be cut or be on some form of roll, as others have said.

I'd never cut a burger in half.

I don't like diagonals. Corners seem like an easy way for somebody to put a razor blade in your sammich.

[panache45]

If I really have to cut a sandwich, I tend to cut it vertically, so the halves are mirror images of each other.

But I rarely cut a sandwich. Instead, I eat all around the perimeter, then the middle (saving the best for last).

[pulykamell]

I pretty much never cut a sandwich. If I do, it tends to be horizontally, as round/oval loaves of bread are kind of funny cut on a diagonal. If I do happen to have a square-shaped loaf, and I happen to feel like cutting it in half for some reason (pretty much the only time I will is when making a grilled cheese sandwich), then I'll cut it on the diagonal.

[Stealth Potato]

Sideways, through the ingredients, not touching the bread.

...Is there any other way? :confused:



But the asymmetry of diagonally or horizontally sliced bread just bothers me - I've never seen a loaf of bread where you can't make some distinction between top and bottom, and it's just not right on some deep moral level to have a "bottom" half and a "top" half.

Sounds like you need some square bread (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HR7DgxmmhdU/SrwqOOe7RDI/AAAAAAAACPM/CW5SbrtPgrY/s400/DSCN3558-1.JPG). :p

[cochrane]

I don't cut my sandwiches. I'm a beefy guy and find that a half of a sandwich is too quickly consumed. So, I'm still hungry when I pick up the second half. In fact, I rarely make just one sandwich. I usually make two.

[BigT]

I've never been able to cut them with a spreading knife, and I see no reason to dirty up a regular knife just to cut it. The whole point when I'm going for a sandwich is to avoid having dishes to clean or more trash that will have to be hauled to the dump. Well, that, and being quick, which again is thwarted by having to do an extra step.

The only reason I'll cut sandwiches is on party platters, for kids, and at diners where they put so much stuff in the bread that it needs to be cut.

Do you guys cut your burgers, too?

[Mangetout]

I have no preferred method of sandwich cutting - if I'm making them for someone else with square sandwich bread, I'll usually cut diagonally into quarters - if I'm making them for myself, I might just fold single slices around the filling, or cut in half or quarters on the square.

For sandiwches made with other shapes or thicknesses of bread, I'll cut whichever way works best in terms of retaining the filling while it's eaten.

[amarone]

Do you guys cut your burgers, too?
I don't eat burgers but the nearest equivalent, say a grilled chicken sandwich, I eat with a knife and fork (when available) and cut off a mouthful at a time. I have no desire to get my fingers and face dirty/greasy (you can't bite into a whole burger without getting some grease around the mouth) when we have invented perfectly good implements to prevent it.

[Antigen]

I'm a freak.

Different sandwiches get different cuts.

Turkey is always rectangles. Ham is triangles, preferably little ones from cutting it in quarters. Grilled cheese is triangles.

[Zeldar]

On those rare occasions when I make my own sandwich I don't cut it at all. When I get one at a shop or restaurant it's most often cut diagonally. That may be determined by the fact that if I order a sandwich, it's most often a cluib and that's how they tend to be cut around here.

If it helps a little, I don't do much sandwich making or ordering.

Of the sandwiches I do order I'd say they fall into these categories:

1) Burgers -- not cut in half
2) Subs -- sometimes cut in half (midway between the ends)
3) Club -- diagonally
4) Grilled cheese -- diagonally
5) BLT -- diagonally
6) deli sandwich of some sort -- could be cut anyway or not at all

[StarvingButStrong]

For 'normal' bread, I use a vertical cut. Except for grilled cheese. Isn't there a law that those have to be cut diagonally? I'm pretty sure there is.

But lately I've been buying really dense whole/multigrain bread that comes in loaves that are fairly short for their width. Cutting those vertically results in basically square halves -- that is, each half is almost exactly as wide as it is tall -- and that just looks unesthetic to me.

So now I cut my sandwiches into vertical thirds. :)

[luv2draw]

I cut my sandwiches vertically. UNLESS I make a grilled cheese. Then I use this:

http://toastiterecipes.com/toas-tite-history/

YUM!!!!!
And cutting it across through the center gives you 2 half circles. :D

[ToeJam]

I prefer natural selection- I cut it whichever way seems least awkward or most convenient (ie: is the sandwich in a vertical position or a horizontal one? Where's my hand and the knife? What's the closest cut I can make w/ the least spillage and effort), and then I eat whichever slice is smaller first. Then the winner gets to be eaten last as it's rightful reward after it has seen the loser perish.

I do this with ALL foods that are divided. Pizza slices, sandwiches, pies, Chicken nuggets, portions of meat- anything that has been given to me and cut, I use Natural selection on to eat the smallest ones first and then eat the larger piece 2nd.

So I voted for Cutlery Surgery, as I didn't want to vote for all the various versions.

[Zeldar]

I prefer natural selection- I cut it whichever way seems least awkward or most convenient (ie: is the sandwich in a vertical position or a horizontal one? Where's my hand and the knife? What's the closest cut I can make w/ the least spillage and effort), and then I eat whichever slice is smaller first. Then the winner gets to be eaten last as it's rightful reward after it has seen the loser perish.

I do this with ALL foods that are divided. Pizza slices, sandwiches, pies, Chicken nuggets, portions of meat- anything that has been given to me and cut, I use Natural selection on to eat the smallest ones first and then eat the larger piece 2nd.

So I voted for Cutlery Surgery, as I didn't want to vote for all the various versions.

<< Nothing to do with sandwich cutting >>

This Battle of the Slices reminds me of my childhood in the back yard where we had several pecan trees. Every fall my brother and I would sit down and crack pecans and eat them for what seemed like hours at a time. The game was to use two pecans in the palm of one hand, with the assistance in squeezing them from the other hand, and get one of the two to crack. As time went on, there was usually one pecan that was tougher than the others, and after a while it became the Champ Pecan.

Whenever we got full or tired or bored of cracking pecans we would have a Final Battle between His Champ and My Champ (alternating who got to administer that last cracking) for the Ultimate Champ Pecan.

It was oddly the case that in more than 50% of the cases, that UCP was either rotten or -- get this -- EMPTY!

<< /Nothing to do with sandwich cutting >>

[pope_hentai]

wow.... i always figure cutting a sandwich was just a tv/restaurant thing to show off the food. I have never actually cut a sandwich at home, except when we make large subs.

[TriPolar]

On a related issue. To prevent crushing a sandwich or shredding the bread when cutting, slice the top piece of bread off the sandwich, then put the pieces back on top and slice through. Very effective on bagels to keep the cream cheese from squirting out the sides.