# Butter on tuna sandwiches **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 30, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861 "2010-12-30T19:50:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/21 "2010-12-31T02:15:18Z")
Jeez, I’ve never even considered it. The only sandwich I’ve ever put butter on, ecxept for when grilling a grilled cheese, is a nice cold meatloaf and butter sandwich. MMMMMM… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/22 "2010-12-31T03:29:48Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > When you say “margarine”, do you include vegetable-oil-based spreads such as Flora, or similar brands? I mean, nobody has used actual margarine since about 1950, right? I don’t get this at all. Aren’t all margarines by definition vegetable-oil spreads? Margarine hasn’t changed much in my lifetime, which stretches back to 1950. There are some now which have air whipped into them, and some that are milk free, and they’re based on a host of different vegetable oils, but chemically, all margarines are 99% identical. Even looking up the Flora brand, it’s 99% the same as every other margarine except with a dash of plant sterols added. Anyway, going back to butter on tuna. Even for the bizarre food fetishes that people here love to boast about, this seems weird. Never done it, never heard of anyone doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/23 "2010-12-31T03:45:55Z")
When I read about people buttering bread for sandwiches, either they’re about to grill the sandwich, or it’s a reference from at least 50 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/24 "2010-12-31T04:23:34Z")
My mother always buttered sandwiches she made for us as kids. I stopped doing it once I started making my own sandwiches. To this day she still has to have butter or margarine on her sandwiches, or bread in general; rolls, muffins, etc. If I’m at her place and I’m eating, for example, a blueberry muffin, she’ll ask me if I want some margarine, even though I always answer no. It’s like she can’t stand to see someone eat it without spreading something on it. She used to say “how can you eat that dry” but she gave up on that. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/25 "2010-12-31T04:30:36Z")
Margarine for a _toasted_ tuna salad sandwich, oh yes. If I’m going to just stick tuna salad between two pieces of untoasted bread, then there’s no need for margarine. However, I don’t recall the last time I made a tuna salad sandwich without toasting the bread. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/26 "2010-12-31T04:34:12Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > When you say “margarine”, do you include vegetable-oil-based spreads such as Flora, or similar brands? I mean, nobody has used actual margarine since about 1950, right? 1950? I think everybody was using butter in 1950. I think it was the 60s or 70s when everyone started switching to margarine for health reasons (which may have been a big mistake considering the apparent health hazards of trans-fats). As far as I know margarine is, by definition, vegetable oil based. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/27 "2010-12-31T04:40:27Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > When I read about people buttering bread for sandwiches, either they’re about to grill the sandwich, or it’s a reference from at least 50 years ago. My vote would be “not anymore”. My Mom used to butter my tuna sandwiches but that was almost 50 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/28 "2010-12-31T04:49:13Z")
Okay, I must ask: whence “sammich”? ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/29 "2010-12-31T05:05:44Z")
I believe somewhere in Kent. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/30 "2010-12-31T07:34:55Z")
> [@Emily\_Litella](#): > > I believe somewhere in Kent. My home town would you believe, and yes, there is a tiny village called “Ham” close by! As for butter on sandwiches, tuna or otherwise, it is pretty much the default in the UK. Not sure what all the fuss is about. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/31 "2010-12-31T10:05:19Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I don’t get this at all. Aren’t all margarines by definition vegetable-oil spreads? Margarine hasn’t changed much in my lifetime, which stretches back to 1950. There are some now which have air whipped into them, and some that are milk free, and they’re based on a host of different vegetable oils, but chemically, all margarines are 99% identical. Even looking up the Flora brand, it’s 99% the same as every other margarine except with a dash of plant sterols added. It may be a UK vs. US thing. Here (UK), “margarine” sounds very old-fashioned, and calls to mind horrible rationing-era butter substitutes of dubious composition. You won’t find the word “margarine” on any of the innumerable varieties of vegetable-oil-based spreads that are available here. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/32 "2010-12-31T16:32:39Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > 1950? I think everybody was using butter in 1950. I think it was the 60s or 70s when everyone started switching to margarine for health reasons (which may have been a big mistake considering the apparent health hazards of trans-fats). > > As far as I know margarine is, by definition, vegetable oil based. Margarine was invented in the 19th century, and was a major product by that century’s end. As the U.S. urbanized, the cost of butter kept going up so cheap substitutes were widely popular. There’s lots of fun history about the battle between farmers and the margarine industry. Margarine is naturally white and many states passed laws that it could not be dyed yellow, in order to make it less appealing. Stores would sell dye packages that could be kneaded into the margarine to color it. One state mandated that margarine could only be dyed pink! All of this was way before 1950. Those laws were phased out after WWII. > [@Ximenean](#): > > It may be a UK vs. US thing. Here (UK), “margarine” sounds very old-fashioned, and calls to mind horrible rationing-era butter substitutes of dubious composition. You won’t find the word “margarine” on any of the innumerable varieties of vegetable-oil-based spreads that are available here. That could be. Margarine, as above, had a poor reputation as a cheap substitute even here, but it was used more than butter. Then the healthy eating craze started and butter got a reputation as being filled with the wrong kind of fats. As davidm says, for a while every authority said to prefer margarine over butter. That’s no longer true, but margarine is still the standard term. Veggie-oil spreads are those weird things you find in natural foods stores and taste off. You probably would be surprised to find out that I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter is one of our major margarine brands. Good margarine is almost indistinguishable from butter, although the foodies would never let such a heresy pass their lips. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/33 "2010-12-31T20:47:30Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > ]Stores would sell dye packages that could be kneaded into the margarine to color it. When I was very small (in Eastern Canada in the early 1970s,) it was still illegal to sell dyed margarine. The dye capsule was actually attached to the package - you were supposed to squish it in before you used it, but this was too much of a pain in the ass, in practice - the dye packs were discarded and we spread it white. In BC, a lot of trade in “imitation dairy” products is actually _still_ illegal, owing to the Milk Industry Act. There was some attempt to repeal this legislation near the end of the 1990s, but it remains on the books, though it is generally regarded as being retarded and the more egregious concessions to the dairy lobby have not been enforced at all since the mid-nineties. For example, it is illegal to sell products labelled as “soy cheese” or “soy milk” in B.C. Within recent memory, manufacturers had to relabel their products as “soya loaf,” “soy beverage,” etc. Technically, they still do - but nobody seems to be very motivated about enforcing such a silly law. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/34 "2010-12-31T22:42:54Z")
Mayo will keep the bread from getting soggy. I used to have an English secretary and she made a sandwich with buttered bread filled with canned salmon mixed with a small amount of vinegar. Quite tasty. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/35 "2010-12-31T23:25:15Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > A post in the Sandwich thread says that sandwiches are made of meat between to slices of buttered bread. Not always butter, IMHO, but usually _some_ sort of spread. Tuna salad is usually made _with_ “spread” (mayo) thus it is a exception. Butter? hellno. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/36 "2010-12-31T23:33:44Z")
I can’t think of any cold sandwich I’ve ever eaten having butter in it, nor do I recall ever seeing such a thing in restaurants. Doesn’t necessarily sound bad, just not something it would ever occur to me to do. Mayo is fine, but most of the time I can get by quite nicely with just some good mustard (which is the only condiment I’d put on a tuna salad sandwich). > [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Okay, I must ask: whence “sammich”? The way I figure it, sometime about a decade ago there was a big meeting and at this meeting the leader said “Here’s what we’re going to do: there’s this word that some of youse use that makes obfusciatrist want to punch people in the forehead; starting now we’re all going to use it all the time until he can no longer contain himself and starts picking people off outside a Togo’s from a bell tower.” I swear, the only thing that’s kept me out of jail is I don’t know of any Togo’s near a bell tower (and it is best of the collective hive mind of the Dope not point them out). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/37 "2010-12-31T23:38:31Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > I can’t think of any cold sandwich I’ve ever eaten having butter in it, nor do I recall ever seeing such a thing in restaurants. > > The way I figure it, sometime about a decade ago there was a big meeting and at this meeting the leader said “Here’s what we’re going to do: there’s this word that some of youse use that makes obfusciatrist want to punch people in the forehead; starting now we’re all going to use it all the time until he can no longer contain himself and starts picking people off outside a Togo’s from a bell tower.” > > I swear, the only thing that’s kept me out of jail is I don’t know of any Togo’s near a bell tower (and it is best of the collective hive mind of the Dope not point them out). I do like butter on cold roast beef & cheese sandwiches, instead of mayo. I’ll be there handing you the ammo, OK? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/38 "2010-12-31T23:50:56Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Okay, I must ask: whence “sammich”? Go forth to your local public library (or liberry) and check out a book of Calvin and Hobbes cartoon compilations. Sammich almost certainly predates C&H, but they certainly did popularize it. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Not always butter, IMHO, but usually _some_ sort of spread. Tuna salad is usually made _with_ “spread” (mayo) thus it is a exception. Butter? hellno. My husband’s mother used to spread mustard on the bread before she added tuna salad (made with mayo). I grew up eating tuna salad made with mustard, because my mother was always on Weight Watchers and mustard was a “free” condiment, whereas she had to account for every bit of mayo that passed her lips. I still like tuna salad with a mix of mustard and mayo, but I don’t like it made with just straight mustard. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/39 "2011-01-01T00:36:20Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Okay, I must ask: whence “sammich”? What do you mean? It seems a natural reduction. I’ve heard it all my life. ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861/40 "2011-01-01T00:48:25Z")
> [@Hades](#): > > Butter does not belong on an untoasted sandwich. This. I remember as a teen having a WTF? moment reading a Trixie Belden mystery. A group of teens were going to be having a cookout, and one of the girls (obviously the gourmet of the bunch) insisted that they needed to leave the butter out beforehand so that it would have time to soften before they spread it on the hamburger buns. Seriously? Who butters the bread for a hamburger? (Well, if you count the ones where people are going to then go on and grill the hamburger buns, I guess there are a few that do. But I don’t think that was what they intended in the book.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butter-on-tuna-sandwiches/565861.md?page=3)