Delicious sandwiches for a special high tea

Here’s how to make delicious sandwiches the traditional way! People eat sandwiches all the time and these days, we have them crammed full to the brim with lots of different delicious flavours. Bacon, lettuce and tomato with mayonnaise. Cheese and pickle. Spicy chicken wrap with salad.

For a traditional Victorian high tea, the sandwich fillings are kept very simple. Only delicate flavours are used, so as not to detract from the real stars of the occasion – bread, best butter and of course, tea! (The Victorians were mad about tea.)

Here’s a recipe for one of the Victorians’ favourite sandwiches – cucumber!  Try them – they are surprisingly delicious.

Ingredients

2 slices of white thinly sliced bread for each person (use your favourite bread) 

Butter (it needs to be soft, so leave it out of the fridge for at least an hour) 

A cucumber

Equipment

A sharp knife (to slice the cucumber and cut the bread)
A butter knife (that is a knife that does not have a sharp edge, so it is easy to butter the bread with it)
A chopping board
A plate to serve the sandwiches
A doilly (a circular patterned piece of paper to make the plate look nice. Don’t worry if you haven’t got one.)

What to do

1. First cut the crusts off the bread. (Victorian ladies thought that crusts were very common!)

2. Butter the bread on one side of each slice.  This will be easy, as long as the butter is soft.

3. Cut a chunk off the cucumber. Then carefully with the sharp knife cut the dark green edges off the cucumber. Then cut the remaining light green sausage shaped cucumber into slices, about as thin as a 10 pence piece.

4. Take a slice of bread, butter side up.  Arrange a layer of cucumber slices on top and then top with a second slice of bread, butter side down.  Gently press down on the sandwich to squash it together a little bit.

5. Cut the sandwich into small shapes – triangles or squares are the easiest.  Each sandwich should be no more than two bites big!

6. Make the rest of the sandwiches in the same way.  Then elegantly pile them on your plate, ready to serve to your guests!

Other sandwiches to try:-

Ham.
Cream cheese and cress.
Roast chicken.

Just remember – keep it dainty and absolutely no chilli sauce!

Recipes

You can always add some lovely homemade coleslaw

… and to go with their tea, Victorians always had cakes! – try homemade shortbread or very easy chocolate fudge cakes.

Cooking Skill

How to complete your Victorian High Tea

…and don’t miss the Story featuring the High Tea:

A Trip to Betty’s Tearooms

Have you tried these sandwiches yet?