This thread could take many tangents, as it did at work yesterday while we tried to avoid doing any actual accounting.
As a child, or if you have children, do they have any sandwich cutting and presentation specifications? Diagonal? Cut in fours? TRIANGLE FOURS or SQUARE FOURS? Whole sandwich? No crusts? Any assembly specs?
I requested that my peanut butter and jelly be stirred up in a bowl as one entity and the sandwich cut in square fours.
My husband and I both agreed, strangely that we thought the diagonal one cut across was for “grown up sandwiches”.
Ooh! Interesting. I thought this was only in my household growing up. Yep, my parents cut my sandwiches down the vertical middle, resulting in two rectangles, but their own sanwiches were cut diagonal, which, of course, I always wanted. Don’t quite know what sort of power trip they were on, but I kept getting rectangles until I could make my own sandwiches.
The only person I have to make “special” sandwiches for is my neice who is a spoiled princess who uses food to control her parents. She gets cookie cutter heart shapes, or she won’t eat. (Anyone who’s read my posts in food pickiness threads can imagine how delighted this makes me. I at least make her cut out her own hearts. Damned if I’m going to cater to that nonsense!)
Everyone else gets input on ingredients (no onions for my son, for example), but I cut it diagonal. Triangle diagonals for those under 5 or with little hands. IF you don’t want the crusts, don’t eat 'em. But darned if I’m making a mess cutting them off for ya.
I’m a firm believer that pickiness should make the pickees life more difficult, not mine.
When I was very young, I got the four little triangles. Then when I was a little older, rectangles. This is so funny, but I agree— as a kid, diagonal cut seemed fancy or for adults only.
Now, I do diagonal for myself and SO. My daughter insists on the little triangles. I just hope she doesn’t get wind of that cookie cutter nonsense.
At our house, sandwiches for kids were cut in half to make two rectangles. My mom would usually put them on a plate, with a space in between, and your chips or whatever went in the space. It had to be cut horizontally, so that the top of the loaf (the curvy part) was entirely on one piece. We had a babysitter who would cut them vertically so that each piece had a bit of the top and bottom, and this was profoundly unacceptable. Except of course, the rule in our house was that you ate the food that was served to you without complaint, so I did accept it and suffered greatly in silence.
Crust cut-off was for special occasions, like your birthday or a snow day. However, there was a catch – the agreement was Mom would cut the crusts off, provided I still ate the crusts separately. I smugly thought I was getting away with murder, eating my crustless sandwich. Man, I was an easy mark as a kid.
Grandma’s house, four triangles. I still think of this way as the grandma way.
I always thought that leaving the sandwich whole was the “grown up way” and when I had the opportunity to make my own sandwich, I would leave it whole so I could feel very adult. I am pretty sure I got this from the Blondie comics, because Dagwood didn’t cut his sandwiches. The point that Dagwood’s sandwich eating preferences are supposed to be on the piggy and goofy side, as opposed to mature and refined, seems to have been lost on me.
The optimum sammich for me as a little Arr was toast, four triangles, generously spread with crunchy peanut butter. Preferably right after the toasting, so the PB would get kinda goopy. This would only happen if my folks were feeling indulgent, or I made the toast myself.
In a pinch, second would be anything on rye bread. Dunno why, but rye was always for ‘adults’ for me, and because of that, it was a special treat. Ham and cheese on rye? Wow! I remember after my first one wanting nothing more to eat for the rest of my life… Unless it was peanut-butter on triangle toast.
Yep, I never really thought about it, but that’s what happened in my home when I was growing up - rectangles for the kids, triangles for the adults! Never would I have thought this was some kind of convention in anyone else’s home.
My parents didn’t cut my sandwiches in any way, I ate them whole, with crusts. I hated crusts because we bought cheap bread and they were incredibly hard and dry, but we were poor so I never asked for no crusts, because I knew they’d say no. Being poor is a very good cure for picky eating. We ate bread heels too. My parents throw them out these days, but I still think it’s wasteful. Old habits die hard, I guess.
Yikes, what a mish-mash. Nope, the peanut butter and jelly must be applied separetely, and there must be twice as much peanut butter as jelly, and the bread must be toasted ahead of time and then cut diagonally.
As you can tell, I only make my own PB&J sammiches. And then I cut the crusts off.
Ma folks din’t cotton ta none uv that-thar nonsense! We’d git ar sammiches any-which way and like 'em, or else!
'Course, I make my own sandwiches now; my one main rule is that the condiment must be next to the meat. (cause, what’s the point of flavoring letuce with mayo or mustard?) If I go for a “fancy” sammich, I put a bit of something sweet next to the veggies (a marm or a sweet vinegrette).
As an adult I’ve learned that I really prefer the hamburger-meat on my sandwiches COOKED.
I lived in Belgium for a year and got curious.
I’m really picky about bread, but if has to be on that squarish store bread it really must be cut diagonally. Who cuts in squares!?
Reminds me of my little brother throwing a fit as a child because a relative made his “hammuger” “wrong” - the ketchup had to be on the top bun, and the mustard had to be on the bottom bun, and they’d gotten it REVERSED!!!
I cut my sandwiches either horizonally or vertically but never diagonally. I don’t like the pointy corners. When I was a kid we got four squares, then when we were older, two rectangles. I don’t remember anyone in our family doing the diagonal thing.
Until recently (he’s now 7½) my son wanted the crust cut off his sandwiches. I have a great bread knife. I would shave just the brown part off, leaving most of the actually “crust”. Fooled him enough that he actually ate more of the bread that way than if I gave him the sandwich with the crust and he left the part he didn’t like.
Now he eats the crust and requests his sandwiches be cut in half horizonally.
I recall not being overly thrilled with the way my mother would make my sandwiches, but not enough to complain. By the time I was 8 though I was making my own or going with my dad on saturdays to the corner deli and having the guy behind the counter make it the way I wanted. Which usually involved larger than average amounts of Miraclewhip and macaroni salad, although I waited til we were at home before I added crushed doritos to my sandwich. I feel ill just thinking about it. Ah, to be a kid again.
My kid’s sandwiches are of the four-triangle variety. I cut the crusts off a couple of times, because he wasn’t eating them, but then he requested that I leave them so he can use them as “handles.”
I slice my own sandwiches either vertically into rectangles or not at all (leave them whole).
When I was a kid we had rectangles. I put chips in them, too. Fritos, Doritos, Lays…not Cheetos, though.
One of my parents, probably my mom, used to cut the corners off my Pop Tarts. This resulted in four small triangles with a large, frosted diamond shape in the middle. I still do that for myself sometimes.
We never had a specific way. As a kid Mom would alternate between cutting them four triangles and four squares (easier to hold for smaller hands) and Grandma cut them in half, either side to side or top to bottom. It didn’t matter.
Now it depends what sort of sandwich I’m having how I cut it. Stuff like roast beef gets cut horizontal, peanut butter and banana goes either horizontal or diagonal. Sometimes for nostalgia sake I cut into four triangles.
As for peanut butter and jam mixed together, my Grandma always tells how they’d mix syrup (corn syrup iirc) and peanut butter together in a jar to spread on the bread for school lunch. This was back in the 40’s .
