[tseabrooks]

I know it's a bit silly but the thing that jumped out about your comment and the parent comment is the butter. You butter a hame and cheese sandwich? Is this a cultural thing I'm not familiar with? zooms off to google to check

[CalRobert]

I moved from the US to Ireland a year ago, and while I love it here the constant vigilance against sandwiches slathered in mayonnaise and butter can be exhausting. I go to the sandwich shop and they helpfully ask "Butter or mayo?" - to which I respond "mustard", and immediately reveal myself as an outsider.

I thought garlic fries, like the sort at Giants games, were delicious! Some garlic, olive oil, parmesan, etc. I was shocked to discover that here and in the UK garlic chips consist of chips (fries) with garlic-accented mayonnaise spread all over them.

And don't call it Aoli. That's just dressing up a disgusting condiment with a fancy word.

[vidarh]

I live in the UK, and the thing I thought summed up the British and Irish obsession with mayonnaise best was when I recently bought a hoi sin duck wrap at the local Tesco and it had "No mayo" in big letters on the front, as if the lack of may was something highly unusual and/or edgy.

Since then I've looked at the ingredient list of every other product with great suspicion, expecting to find mayo everwhere...

[dkersten]

I'm not an outsider, yet I always answer "no thanks".

I use butter and mayo for one of two things: flavour (eg I love kerry gold on toast ;-) often nothing else) or moisture - but if I don't need the moisture, usually because I've got tomato, peppers, coleslaw, relish or something else providing that, I will leave butter and mayo out. Unless I want them for the flavour. (As an side, I don't understand why people would ever want butter on a breakfast roll)

[stan_rogers]

"... usually because I've got tomato, peppers, coleslaw, relish or something else providing that..."

These are precisely the instances in which I would want something oily (butter, marg or mayo) as waterproofing for the bread. (Mustard also works, if it's appropriate for the sandwich.) "Everyone has the gout," as they (don't actually) say in French.

[CalRobert]

I feel I should give credit where it's due - while I'm no fan of butter on sandwiches, the butter here is fantastic, and makes for delicious toast, popcorn, etc.

I just don't need a peanut butter and butter and jelly sandwich.

[voyou]

Where were you in the US that didn't put butter and mayo on sandwiches? Both seemed to be standard on sandwiches I bought in the Bay Area.

[CalRobert]

Odd.. This would be Berkeley, Santa Monica, and San Luis Obispo.

[oneeyedpigeon]

I can't think of a sandwich I wouldn't butter, including peanut butter.

[jeena]

How could you eat it without butter? Isn't it far to dry to be eatable? But this could be because of the difference in bread, just image-google "bread" vs. "Brot".

[vidarh]

I can't think of any type of bread I've tried which is too dry to be edible without butter when it is fresh.

[bane]

I grew up in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. and saw it both ways. Butter on sandwiches just sort of seems like just another way to make one, like some people like Mayonnaise (I don't) or not. I'd probably put it on a jam sandwich, or a ham and cheese, but not a PB&J (the Peanut Butter takes on the same role).

Of course I also grew up in very immigrant heavy areas so that may have been part of it.

[shitgoose]

"You butter a ham and cheese sandwich?"

In Russia, where I grew up this is the only way to make a sandwich.

[zwieback]

In Germany it's common but regionally different. My Swabian friends thought it weird I'd do that but my family is from the North. After 25 years in the US I now think it's gross.

[mattmanser]

UK, every sandwich buttered. Helps hold things in place.

[tseabrooks]

Ah, here we'd only butter a sandwich if it were being fried (Grilled cheese or grilled ham & cheese)

[twic]

Just to be clear: are you thinking of buttering the inside or the outside of a sandwich?

In the UK, standard practice is to butter sandwiches on the inside, ie on the surfaces of the bread which interfaces with the filling. Are you by any chance talking about buttering the outside?

[podperson]

I recently encountered this cultural difference (I grew up in Australia) with my wife (we live and she grew up in the US). My daughters vastly prefer my sandwiches to hers because I butter the bread (on the inside, the way God intended), usually using as little butter, or margarine, as possible. When asked why, I say it's mainly because it prevents the moist stuff in the sandwich from turning the bread to mush, but also because it tastes good.

I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that most sandwiches these days are prepared and then eaten right away, whereas I was brought up in a world where sandwiches tended to be prepared long in advance of being consumed.

That said, Americans will cheerfully slather "mayonnaise" on bread.

[epochwolf]

My dad does this. I don't get it.