Wait. What? Americans don't put butter in their sandwiches?

[GoodOldEmmaNess]

How can this make sense? That's what butter is - the thing that goes in sandwiches. Can I take the blue pill and forget I ever read this?
https://www.theguardian.com/food/commentisfree/2023/sep/20/why-dont-americans-put-butter-on-their-sandwiches

Yup!

No butter on bacon sandwiches and definitely not on a hot dog. Definitely butter on everything else.
Have to say US sandwiches always look amazing compared to UK. Limp ham salad from a supermarket anyone?
Wanted to order one in San Francisco while on holiday but it was too fast paced and I wimped out. But the choice was brilliant.

It didn't occur to you that they didn't want a kettle for the same reason you don't want a coffee maker? Do you not get out much?

Squirty cheese from a can 😶

@Honeychickpea I'd ask the charm school for my money back if I were you.

@Beeinalily I can understand your surprise at the kettle situation on this side of the pond. Likewise, when I first went to the UK, I was surprised that electric coffee makers were in short supply.

Another reason that we don't have a lot of electric kettles here is that our electricity is different. You can grow old waiting for an electric kettle to boil. When I do need to boil water, it's actually quicker to do it on the stove top.

I'm in the US and I've traveled or lived in almost every state and I've only once seen butter on a sandwich- and it was labeled as "French". I actually got it for my daughter to expand her horizons a bit lol. The only other thing we do is grill our bread in butter so it stays crispy, mainly hamburger buns, the classic grilled cheese, or paninis. On the other hand, those who make homemade bread will toast it and everyone will slather lots of butter on each slice and eat it plain like that. Dinner rolls are eaten with gobs of butter too. Just almost never in a sandwich!

I don't find this to be true- it's likely true for a certain demographic but most of the US is not that demographic. Many people in the US come from tea cultures and use their respective methods for making it. And for many of those it is an electric kettle. People also use a stovetop kettle, especially now that pour over coffee is so popular here. Those that don't use a kettle use the microwave, probably the most popular method in the US to heat anything, so it's very ingrained. In the South where I'm from, tea is boiled in a pan on the stove with sugar, then cooled and poured over ice and maybe some lemon. It's prepared that way because it's so hot and the family drinks from that pitcher all day because the prep time is too long to make individual glasses. There's countless other ways I've seen, this country being such a melting pot of cultures. I grew up with a Pakistani family that make their tea British style for obvious reasons. It also seems like historically differentiating ourselves from everyone else in every way possible has been a big priority for some reason, which only makes us seem backwards, and sometimes rightly so. My point is, the kettle thing isn't entirely true, and sometimes it's for the better as it suits our various climates and cultures better.

When I was in Australia (the land of smooth hummus, not that weird aerated grainy stuff we have here) I started using that in sandwiches instead of butter. It's SCRUMMY.

Also, it comes in 1kg tubs 😁

What is pour over coffee? I was surprised the last time I was in the States that most homes+ only seemed to have filter coffee and/or cafetière (French press) equipment. The filter coffee in particular tasted very weak. I thought Americans were big coffee drinkers so I thought they'd all have proper barista-style espresso machines, or at least those mini pod machines (Nespresso style). It was a few years ago though and in the UK home coffee culture has been changing quite quickly, so maybe the US has too. My ex-FIL (UK) is still using those one-cup coffee filter things that sit on top of a mug and drip coffee in, he's the only person I know who buys them.

+Admittedly it wasn't a large sample size!

They do not butter their sandwiches. In addition a fair number of them think cucumber sandwiches are a myth and British suggestions of them are international trolling as no one in their right mind would eat a cucumber sandwich.

Must be all the chemicals, growth promoters, antibiotics and other gunk (much of it banned from other parts of the world) that those factory farmed piggies eat that makes the difference.

I agree. I’ve tried American bacon and sausage and all I could taste was chemicals especially with bacon there was that chemical they use to fake the taste of smoked bacon. Couldn’t stomach it.

I butter the bread if the filling is “dry”, like ham or cheese, but not with Mayo

Butter in sandwiches in grim. The sliminess of it on the other filling is rancid. Especially on salad. Mustard, mayo, pickle, cream cheese, anything else is fine and delicious but butter is slimy grimness. But on toast on the other hand...

I haven't used butter in sandwiches for nearly 40 years.

I'm English but lived in the US for a short time about 40 years ago. There, I happened to be in someone's kitchen and was helping her to make sandwiches. I saw that she was using mayo and not butter, so I did the same.

Upon eating the sandwich, I realised how much nicer it was than one made with butter. The added bonus is that mayo is so much easier to spread, especially when the bread is very fresh. Ever since then it's been mayo all the way for me!

Not real cheese!

This is the cheese department at my local supermarket in the US. Is all of this cheese "not real"?

https://uncleg.com/departments/cheese/

Pour over was originally developed by the Japanese (huge coffee culture there like the US), it involves a filter set in a ceramic or plastic holder w/coffee placed directly over the coffee cup with boiling water poured over. The kettle has a thin, long spout. There's a whole method to it. Overall the US is much more about coffee than tea. Everyone's tastes are wildly different. Drip coffee can be made strong or weak. A lot of people do use the k-cups. I would say most people have multiple methods for making coffee at home because every adult likes it differently. I use a moka pot because it's the closest to espresso I can make at home without getting an espresso machine- they are very expensive! That's probably the only reason more people don't have them. Wealthy people have them for sure, even if they don't know how to use it lol. So really, if you went into 100 US homes you'd find 100 different tea/coffee methods/preferences.

For everyone who subscribes to the cultural bigotry that the US doesn't produce world-class cheese, consider the article linked below. People who rubbish American cheese on threads like this are either badly misinformed or simply trying to big themselves up.

An American Cheese Won the World Cheese Awards for the First Time Ever

American cheeses performed well this year, as seven U.S. cheeses were included in the competition's list of the World's 84 Best Cheeses. But not everyone is celebrating America's new dairy dominance; according to Sky News, France isn't taking the results well. One widely read newspaper in the country called it "sacrilege" that only one French cheese placed in the top 16. (That cheese tied for eighth.)

Jacket potatoes, too - across the pond you get a teaspoonful of sour cream 🤮 and chives. Heathens!

You have to ask for butter - and get that weird look, as if you’re an alien.

I only put butter in a jam sandwich. 👀👀 wrong

Uk here & don’t, the taste of fat in a sandwich is really off putting

We have a Keurig for everyday coffee, but we also do pour over coffee with a Melita often on weekends when we have more time. We like a strong dark roast and that is easily possible with both methods.

What Americans don't do is drink instant coffee. Even down market hotels in the US have coffee brewing equipment in the rooms.

Also, we like cream, not milk, with coffee.