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.

We usually pour milk over cereal, but it has slightly different names

whole milk = whole milk
2% v semi skimmed
1% v skimmed

and then there is half and half which is half milk and half cream and people put it in their coffee.

I would guess that if you were buying food from a convenience store (not shop!) that you didnt spot the milk. It might have been in the soft drink section in single serve containers rather than a big jug next to the other dairy products

I wouldn't say it's of higher quality, but I don't think dryers ruin clothes if you use them properly. If anything the agitators on American top loaders are harsher on the clothes than the tumble dryer. There's times of year here where I can't really dry outside even if I wanted to (pollen season is the worst).

Milk is sold everywhere in the US, it must have just been where you were. It is rare to find it in less than a quart container, though.

I think some of their cotton items may be better - they do, after all, grow the stuff.

It must have been as we were in the city centre and only had Target / K-mart type shops close by.

We still laugh about the sweetened Nesquik over sweetened cereal, it made for a good sugar rush 😀

My relatives in the US tell me that buttering bread for sandwiches was definitely a thing in many parts of America until around the 1960's. They would butter bread in just the same way as the British and Irish do. They're not sure how it came to die a death but apparently some "old folks" still do butter their bread.

Just looked up 'over easy' eggs. Always perplexed me!

Next time you are in Manhattan look for a Morton WIlliams Supermarket. They have milk and are all over the city centre.

Over easy eggs are fried eggs flipped over briefly so that any runny white bits on the top of the egg cook but the yolk is still runny

Over medium eggs are flipped over for a little longer so the yolk is still moist but wont run all over the plate when cut

Over hard eggs are flipped over and cooked until the yolk is solid

The complexities of ordering breakfast round me are huge. There is so much choice and you can customize everything anyway you want.

this is the menu for a pretty simple diner https://henrysdinervt.com/order.

the wait staff are amazing as 1 person’s order can involve a 14 point list of requests, and they get it all right, and its cooked and served in about 15 mins

Over easy eggs are easier to cook than you might think (hence the name perhaps?). I was amazed the first time I tried one and the yolk didn’t burst. It just needs a few seconds to solidify the bit of white on top. Game changer.

But can't you just spoon some of the hot fat over the white to solidify it?

Tried that, doesn’t work for me. I tend to use a non-stick pan and very little fat though. Proper over easy gives a very thin film of white over the entire yolk.

This. We use almost no fat and a non-stick pan. I've been flipping eggs over easy for a very long time, and I think maybe only once or twice have I broken the yolk.

Yes - I was wondering whether the US "salad" sandwiches have their roots in the Scandi salads that are made for open sandwiches and usually spread on ryebread. In Denmark for example there are shelves full of these mayo salads, ham, egg, chicken, tuna, curry, "Italian" (vegetable salad), "Russian" (beetroot - often on top of herring)

There are several bizarre salads in Denmark

• Mackerel salad - in a plastic tub - on the bottom mashed up mackerel in tomato sauce (like you get in tins) and topped with 2-4 cm of mayo
• Prawn salad - prawns, mayo, white asparagus (so far so good) ... and pasta (usually macaroni) which seems sort of random. Although these days many brands have gone upmarket and call it Skagen salat without pasta.

WARNING - if you ever order hotdogs with a bun, mash or fries in Sweden - it's common for them to put prawn mayo on it - no idea why

We did that here too with spare wallpaper.

Americans don't say trebled but they do say once and twice.

NYC grocery stores are shit except trader Joe's, that's the only reason you couldn't find milk.

I think yellow cake is what we call plain sponge cake

I do find American “recipes” fascinating.

they’re all “amazing 2 ingredient cake” or “2 ingredient peanut butter cookies”

wow you think. Then the recipe is a box of cookie mix and peanut putter.

what’s with “birthday cake” as a flavour as well?

back to “grilled cheese”, why aren’t they “fried cheese” if you fry them? They don’t go anywhere near any kind of grill?

This website has an interesting history and theory on "grilled cheese":

"It’s not until the 1960’s that America starts calling them “Grilled Cheese”, for not entirely well-established reasons, but I think presumably as kids and sailors who ate it during the war came back and began ordering it at restaurants and diners, where they were likely cooked on griddles, also known as “flat-top grills”."

https://kitchen-catastrophe.com/kitchen-catastrophe/qt-121-the-linguistic-gridlock-of-grilled-cheese#:~:text=It's%20not%20until%20the%201960's,also%20known%20as%20%E2%80%9Cflat%2Dtop

Also "birthday cake" as a flavour means it has birthday cake sprinkles.

• do find American “recipes” fascinating.

they’re all “amazing 2 ingredient cake” or “2 ingredient peanut butter cookies”*

America has so great recipe sites, recipe books and cookery tv shows, so its not all amazing 2 ingredient stuff, you find what you look for, same as in the UK, you can find plenty of packet recipes in the UK.

@isthismylifenow we have supermarkets in NYC . Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and they sell many varieties of milk.

You may have had a hard time finding them if you weren't staying in a somewhat residential area though.

I watch a lot of US baking shows and there seems to be a major difference in terms of method. We tend to favour the fat and sugar creamed together, add eggs then flour method. The US way seems broadly to be ‘add wet ingredients to dry ingredients’ (though with exceptions either way, obvs).

I also make sourdough and a lot of the US baking sites have comments from people who’ve never used scales, don’t have any and want measurements in cups. They have to be told that you really do need to measure by weight and it’s not scary at all; it’s really very easy!

I don't know anyone in the US who doesn't have an electric kettle.

The difference between boiling water in my mum's electric kettle in Dublin and where I live is minimal.

The front loader smart washing machine in the basement goes up almost to my ribs, and it's deep too. It definitely wouldn't fit under a counter. I can fit a huge amount of laundry into it. My old top loader was big too. My mum's washing machine under her counter is like a doll's house machine by comparison.

This thread has reminded me I want a stovetop kettle for my induction hob. We recently moved house and induction has been a revelation to us.