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

Even with things like jam or pickle you need a butter barrier otherwise it seeps in to the bread.

This is like when I learnt most Americans don't have kettles.

Fresh sourdough bread with butter and sharp cheese is fantastic! American butter though tends to be almost white. Apparently that happens when the cows they use for the milk doesn't get to go outside and eat grass.

the explanation, I think, is that, like their horrible chocolate, a lot of American butter is substandard, because of looser regulations; European butter has to have a higher butterfat percentage than American butter and those extra percentages add a lot of flavour. American butter is usually designed for cooking and, unless you go out of your way to look for the good stuff, it doesn’t add much to a sandwich.

This doesn't make sense - I know their butter is inferior their YouTube chefs often talk about using french butter which upon looking into is just butter here.

The issue I have is I was brought up on margarine of various types* *being in sandwiches only as an adult able to have actual butter have I realised how much better butter is. Kids and DH still prefer margarine in sandwiches and refer to it as butter even knowing it's not.

Nutella, jam and bacon sandwiches are only one I can think of that don't need butter or a butter substitute like margarine. I don't like salad cream or mayo.

This could explain why they don't "get" chip buttes or crisp sandwiches.

No one has even mentioned cucumber sandwiches yet. An English tea time staple and one which requires butter. No crusts obviously. 😊

I don’t need bread for my sandwiches. Just a block of butter wrapped in a slice of ham.

Mustard = American Mustard or German sweet Mustard not that blow your head off and make you cry English bastarding Mustard...fuck me, bought some when I first came to the UK couldn't find my normal American Mustard in those days. Used it to make some salami sandwiches for a picnic H walks in sees what I'm doing and says whoa there that's a lot of Mustard. I replied with I don't like dry sandwiches. He laughed, actually fucking laughed. Said he would do his own.

We are having said picnic after a gruelling hike I sit down and unwrap my glorious Mustard, salami, provolone and rocket on rye. Next thing, I'm choking my eyes are streaming, nose starts running like Niagara fucking falls and he's laughing so hard he's crying. Like actually crying.

I've never touched the cunty stuff again. It's been nearly 20 years and it's dead to me.

But the point of butter is that it stops the wet filling from soaking in the bread and making it soggy!

Im from Scotland and I never ever butter sandwiches - i do for toast though.

I’m married to an American and there is a lot of butter used in cooking, but not in sandwiches. Mustard, mayo, pesto - all of these get used where you might expect butter in a sandwich.

I think they have a different variety of cucumber in their shops one with a tougher skin - there's a US citizen who does food tech on YouTube who did something on that.

I think their bread is loaded with much more sugar than ours as well.

I watched same guy explain why even their small professional bakeries used packets for cakes as they do in their home kitchens as it's a superior product to home baking - I suspect that's also down to their flour and butter being different inferior to ours.

Butter only on toast or in mash for me and possibly new potatoes.
My DH and DD won’t eat them without

@OneMoreCookieMonster OMG that's hilarious (and a little mean of your DH not to warn you about English Mustard!). Bere we barely think of French's mustard as mustard, it's more like a mild sauce.

@Bagpuss2022 same here

Thing is, I hate the texture of cold butter but I like the taste. Toast, veggies or mash with lots of melted butter are lovely. Sandwiches nope

Peanut butter, jam, soft cheese don’t need a spread, they are a spread themselves
I wholeheartedly disagree with this. Butter (or marge, I'm not fussed who has will anger the butter purists) is an essential undercoat. I wouldn't make a sandwich or toast without butter/marge regardless of whatever the topping/filing is going to be. Butter is always just step 1.

Mayo might be added as an extra. Still not a replacement for the butter.

Butter is the only filling a sandwich needs

Does American cheese actually count as cheese though? I think if you compared the dna of American cheese to say those Mexican alien corpses that are everywhere at the moment , you would conclude that American cheeses are genetically more likely to be the alien artefacts.

And anyway, who in their right mind would take culinary advice from the nation that adds marshmallows to savoury dishes. And who invented the abomination that is pumpkin pie.

Absolute heathens 🫨

With hundreds and thousands if you are catering for a party.

I put butter on toast, if all I want is butter on the toast, but not on sandwiches. I live in England and was born in Northern Ireland.

What the actual hell? I had no idea Americans were such deviants! This on top of their crimes against cheese is just too much.

Of course you put butter on sandwiches and then whatever other wet thing you want alongside the main filling(s). Mayo, speculoos, jam, hummus, pesto, whatever - they're all great, as well as the butter, never as a substitute.

I find it hard to fathom that there are people in this world who would look in the fridge/pantry, realise they had no butter, and make a sandwich anyway, let alone people who would deliberately not buy or use it!

Ah yes sorry I did indeed mean “cheese”.

I’d also like to add corn dogs to the list of Wtf America?!

Only if you put sugar on top of the butter.

Nope no butter on sandwiches for me either. Can't stand the texture but will have it on toast as long as it's completely melted in.

Butter and marge are as different as champagne and gravel, or chocolate and bricks. To lump them both together as 'the stuff' shows such a depth of depravity it has compelled me, against my better judgement, to engage with this thread.
Butter is fucking gorgeous.

I concur.

Kerrygold on semi cold toast, so thick that when you bite into it, you leave teeth marks. The only way to go.