Do Americans not cut their sliced bread sandwiches?

[BurntBroccoli]

I've often noticed that Americans on TV never seem to cut their sandwiches in half ) or quarters like British people.
Is this a thing? Does it depend on the filling?
Do some of you not cut your sandwiches?

Thinking sliced bread type of sarnies here, not baguettes or paninis etc.

Perhaps so, it's just I've never heard a British person say 'we live in a 800 sq ft flat or a 1700 sq ft house' and I've no idea what either of these would look like or feel like to live in.

On recipes, I'm always fascinated to read about those which call for yellow cake mix, because it always makes me think of yellowcake, which is something that no-one would ever want to eat as it's uranium oxide, so highly chemically toxic and radioactive.

America loves butter! are traditional food stall fare are state fairs (like county shows).

I don't like butter in sandwhiches either. British, spent part of my childhood in Texas, but I don't think that's why.

Yes! I follow a blog whose author always goes to the county fair, and they have deep-fried butter on a stick. It looks…..erm, interesting. Not for me, but I’d still butter my sandwiches.

I happened to see another TwitterX thread the other day of reviews from US people who’d decided to give Colmans mustard a try and dolloped it liberally onto their hotdogs as they would American mustard. As a consequence, they were not happy 🔥🔥🔥

Yellow cake is just a cake that uses whole eggs so the yolks made it yellow, as opposed to egg white only cakes like angel food. Homemade is best of course.

Yes we cut sandwiches, Yes we owned an electric kettle.
Our grocery store had a choice of bags, paper or plastic, no handles on the paper and I always chose paper as I could recycle the paper use it to start the woods stove in winter and the kids covered text books with it.
Bedrooms in newer homes have to be a minimum size (each state.county have their own rules) and have a closet for building regs. I think it was 10'x10' minimum plus a closet where we lived.

From my understanding, induction cooking is rare in the US.

I'm hardly going to list every comment, but I can assure you that every time there is a thread about living in Australia or NZ (or tbh almost anywhere that isn't the UK) out comes the usual nonsense about how awful life is there.

An American friend visiting here wrote when she got back home thanking me for letting her use our cute mini washing machine. It's a normal (for UK) sized under-counter domestic washing machine. Do some US homes have huge ones like those in laundrettes? Or is it just that we use front-loaders rather than top loaders? Loading a taller machine could be a challenge.

I didn't like to ask her as it might have sounded a bit defensive.

Why do Americans pronounce 'herb' the French way?
I recently binge watched that barbecue programme on Netflix, and it sounded really strange.
Also confused by
Grits ( look mushy - or mooshy)
Biscuits?
Smores? (? Sp)
Also do you not say once, twice etc? More often hear one time, two times
And finally
Is it true that a fortnight is not a thing?

Americans tend not to use electric kettles as they tend not to drink 10 gallons of tea each day. However that’s not to say you can’t buy a kettle - they are readily available for purchase at all the usual places if you want one. They are just less common than in the UK

Eh?

Our electricity bill was astronomical in the summer when we had to run the AC. And we only had a single storey house - I knew people that only lived upstairs in two storey homes in the winter because trying to cool the upstairs in summer would have been $$$$.

Top loading machines are more common, and yes they are way bigger. Traditionally you would keep it in the basement or garage - Americans find it really strange to do laundry in the kitchen.

It's just because it's TV.
If the scene includes cutting the sandwich in half and you need to shoot a dozen takes, then there needs to be a dozen sandwiches so that there's a fresh one to cut in half each take.
There will have been a microsecond of thought as most of the effort is going into the actual subject of the scene but the actor will have said "am I cutting it in half" and the answer would be "nah don't bother"

Red cups
Paper plates
Disposable cooking trays

Is this just a tv thing? If not why do people use them?

Cutlery technique!

My family are in the mid west. They have an electric kettle.

They don't butter sandwiches but do butter toast. Getting the right bread for toast is very important, get it wrong and you have toasted cake.

Herb is a French loan word - seems like the English are the weird ones. Same goes for fillet.

grits are a southern comfort food - bit like soft polenta. Not eaten everywhere in the us, you will either love it or hate it.

biscuits are like savoury scones

smores are common in the uk, no? My dc make them in scouts when they go camping. Chocolate, marshmallow between two biscuits. Key difference is that in the us they use Graham crackers - flavour similar to a digestive biscuit but thinner.

we say once, twice. Might be a regional difference in terms of frequency vs. One time/ two times.

fortnight is a thing, and I think would be understood but less commonly used.most people would say ‘two weeks’.

Amusing theory, but I can assure you that in my American family 8 out of 10 times the sandwich will not be cut in half depending on who is making it. It wouldn’t be weird either way.

now red solo cup is the best receptacle for bbqs, tailgates, fairs and festivals.

never actually drank from one, but a huge fan of the toby Keith song.

Newer machines are split between top and front loading, I have front. But they are taller than British ones, they don't fit under the counter. Mine are in a laundry area in my basement.

Induction cooking is still rare but starting to pick up.

The reason for bigger houses isn't heating and cooling; it's more land. Look at how far North American suburbs spread out. Australia too. (Yes, attached houses definitely exist, either older row homes or modern townhouses, but the pattern was much more detached homes on larger plots of land, especially in the postwar era where cars made it easy to travel longer distances.)

Grits: I'm not so fond, but quite similar to soft polenta or other porridge type dishes. (Strictly speaking grits are hominy while polenta is ordinary cornmeal.)

Biscuits are delicious. So are smores, melted marshmallow with chocolate and graham crackers (digestives) -- how can you go wrong with that? You pop the toasted marshmallow onto the chocolate and cracker and smoosh it so it all melts together.

Yes Americans say once and twice, but never thrice. And not fortnight usually.

And yes red solo cups (or store brand equivalent) are commonly used at parties, cookouts, that sort of thing. An American friend tells a story of when she had an overseas visitor (somewhere in Scandinavia I think?) and he couldn't believe red Solo cups were real.

Thank you! No, never heard of the marshmallow thing. I have clearly lived a sheltered life!

Re herb - Yes I get it's a loan word but surely there are examples the other way of Americanised French terms? Maybe not....

Thanks. I feel duly ashamed of my small washing machine.
It isn't in the kitchen, though I realise most people who have washing machines keep it there. British houses don't tend to be big enough to put them elsewhere.

(Please don't ask us about what Brits keep in their garages. 🤐Clue: it's not always a car.)

Loving this topic! l love American food and always come home a few lb heavier! Give me an hour in Trader Joe's and I'm happy.

Sandwiches with no butter does seem parsimonious to your average Brit, but obviously it's what you're used to.

I was met with a patronising incredulity from a friend from Kentucky (she sounds JUST like Scarlett O'Hara, it's wonderful) when she queried why anyone would butter, eg, peanut butter toast. 'The clue's in peanut BUTTER... you';re just putting butter on butter?' she said, horrified. No, my pal, peanut butter isn't actually 'butter' in my book!

HOWEVER she MORE than redeemed herself by giving me her recipe for 'the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich' and oh my god.... this involves melting cheese in your frying pan and setting your (mostly cooked) cheese toastie on it, waiting till it browns, then flipping, adding more cheese to the pan and repeat. (I think these are known as 'Inside-out grilled cheese'.

You end up with a crunchy, frilly layer of crispy cheese on the OUTside of the sandwich as well as oozy melty cheese INside. You have to try it to believe the deliciousness of this...

I can't find her recipe, but I see Tesco have one Ultimate Grilled Cheese Sandwich - Tesco

The lower voltage electricity is why electric kettles are usually a bit pointless in thr US.

When we lived there for a couple of years, the washer and drier were in a cupboard on the upstairs landing - much more convenient than having to carry laundry down and up stairs. I guess the top loaders don't have the same leakage issues, and I never saw an outdoors clothesline.

I remember being slightly bemused when I came across a recipe for cucumber sandwiches, which gave instructions on how to butter the bread - as of course, the butter is an essential component in that case.

I don't think this is an American thing?

I am in neither the US nor the UK, and egg boilers have been around for years.

I do not know anyone here that has a rice cooker that I read about fairly often though.

I did visit New York and wanted to have some easy breakfast type food in the room as our hotel didn't include breakfast (which I thought a little odd, they didn't even have a dining area, you had to go next door to the diner which wasn't part of the hotel).

So we decided to get to some cereal, which was easy enough to find. But do you think we could find normal plain milk? Not a chance. We ended up having to get ready made vanilla Nesquik as a substitute. I think now is my chance to ask if it was just the area we were in NY that we couldn't find any milk, or is there something else that is usually poured over cereal?

Would you say fabric is of a higher quality in the US? I ask because Americans deny their tumble dryers damage items, but I'm always pulling masses of lint from mine and things look shabbier much earlier. My dryer has damaged quite a few things too. I'd wager most Europeans believe tumble dryers wreck items prematurely, so perhaps ours do. Or is it that Americans replace clothes and bedding more frequently to not notice?