Cucumber sandwich recipe

Very simple
very English

This is one of only a few English tea sandwich recipes and probably the most well-known. This means that it used to be served with a pot of tea in the afternoon, for what the English call “Afternoon tea”.

Served alongside the tiny, crustless, delicacies may be other small finger sandwiches, scones with jam and cream and a variety of small cakes and pastries.

If you order Afternoon Tea in a smart English hotel these days, that is what you can expect. It would be rare to find an English family sitting down to such fare these days.

Cucumber sandwich recipe:-

Use very fresh, white bread, cut thinly. Soften some salted butter and spread right to the edges of each slice. Cut off the crusts.

Use the best English cucumber you get can hold of. If you have grown it yourself so much the better. You want your sandwich to taste of it and sometimes the ones you buy in supermarkets are forced and have no flavour.

Peel and then slice it thinly - not as in the picture above! Place the thin slices on the well buttered bread. Cover with another buttered slice and then cut into four small triangles.

Serve immediately.


If you wish to make these to serve at a picnic later on in the day, then you MUST drain the vegetable first by leaving the slices in a sieve or colander for at least an hour, with a good sprinkling of salt, so that the water drains out of it. Otherwise, even with a good spread of butter, your sandwich will end up a soggy mess! (and I would advise seeking an alternative anyway unless you have nothing else at all available!)

If you are not looking for a very English version, then feel free to use cream cheese, blue cheese dressing or mayo in the sandwich.

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