How Do You Cut Your Sandwich: Diagonally or Vertically?

I also only got rectangles-no triangles. Regardless of my argument that triangle sandwiches were bigger. AND my teachers tried to convice my mother that I had either a hearing impairment or was emotionally fragile. To which I was informed in the car ride home, “You answer when spoken to and quit your bawling at school, or I’m gonna give you something to cry about.” Hey, it worked. God bless our plaid panted-long silk collared-pixie hair cutted little selves, we turned out ok.

The publicist says it depends on the sandwich. Grilled cheese should always be in triangles but PB and J should be be rectangles.

So it is written.
And eaten.
Burp

Cut a sandwich? I went both ways. And sometimes, into quarters. Sometimes, with crust, sometimes, no.

Vertically cut sandwiches?! Seriously? I’m not sure we can still be friends now, Margaret.

I can only speak for England. Now I’ll get into the ‘class’ thing. It is generally considered more working class to cut sandwiches horizontally. Diagonally-cut sandwiches are more middle class and dainty. How do I cut mine? Any which way I fancy at the time. I’ve even been known to cut mine in quarters if the mood takes. If I were making them for visitors, I might cut diagonally though.

As kids we always got horizontally cut sandwiches as they are definitely easier to handle.

I had similar sandwich cutting phobias as well as the fear of disappointing people which is why I could never do anything in front of a group. Le sigh.

I still cut my sandwiches vertically, even though i envy those with diagonally cut ones.

When I visited my grandparents alone for the first time, my grandfather made buttered white bread toast and cut it into quarters, diagonally. I had never seen white bread, never tasted any toast spread that wasn’t margarine, and I’d only had my toast cut horizontally.

I went home and demanded that my mom make “Grandpa’s Famous Toast.” She had to call her in-laws to figure out what that was. And then, she refused to make it for me, because white bread was “unhealthy.”

I’m going to remind her of that story when I have her put in a home…

Amen, sister. But now I’m worried that rectangular sandwich pieces cause emotional fragility. Hmmmm….

Interesting hypothesis and I think I agree. Grilled cheese looks (or works) better in triangles.

Cut a sandwich into quarters? Something tells me you’re a live-on-the-edge kind of gal.

See? I KNEW this would be a problem. I’m willing to take this to arbitration if you are, as long as we can still remain friends.

You Brits. It’s like you have a different sandwich for everything!

Maybe we should form some sort of support group. Demand to be called “diagonally challenged” instead of “loser” and such.

We were well entrenched in white bread and our meals only came from cans and boxes. But that’s another woe-is-me blog post for another day. Unless I did that one already. I love your story.

You know my sandwiches never got cut. I had a bologna and cheese sandwich everyday for lunch because that was my favorite and still is and I still eat them for my brunch as it were because I can’t stomach breakfast so early in the morning.

What is the reasoning for cutting a sandwich anyway? I can understand the need to slice up a pizza — trying to eat one unsliced is sortof awkward (but it CAN be done) - but a sandwich? Unless of course it is for trading purposes, then I can see the merit of it.

My sandwiches, if cut at all, were always cut vertically. I never thought about it, nor, come to think of it, do I have foggiest notion what anyone else brought for lunch. I guess we were all uncool back then. Uh oh, now I’m hungry…

You got cut sandwiches? What???

Ah yes, my mother used to give me vertically cut sandwiches too. And I hated them. However, now I always cut my sandwiches diagonally.

That’s another thing! Everyone but me had bologna! I’ve never eaten a bologna sandwich in my life! How crazy is that?

Look at you, seeing the forest for the trees (or whatever that saying is). Indeed, why cut the sandwich at all.

Talking about food will do that. I have to change the channel every time a Burger King commercial comes on.

No lie! What, you didn’t?

This makes no sense, but whenever I cut them diagonally it feels like there is more crust on the sandwich, which I don’t like. How silly is that?

This makes no sense, but whenever I cut them diagonally it feels like there is more crust on the sandwich, which I don’t like. How silly is that?

Diagonal! Always! It’s the only way to make the first bite fit nicely into one’s mouth.

M
http://www.braysofourlives.com

Although, now that I think about it, I might vertically cut a really huge sandwich—if it were overloaded with veggies, for instance—in order to protect its structural integrity.

EXACTLY! Structural integrity. Why didn’t I think of that earlier?

You never had a chance, did you Margaret?

It always breaks my heart when I find out one of my kids was too timid or worried to ask me to change something minor to help them fit in. One of my children is super quiet in school so I’m always doing everything in my power to show that I! am! a! great! mother!

Dammit, my children might grow up with issues, but I’ll be damned if they are the exact same issues as me!

OMG, I hopped over to Gmail after I wrote this and it turns out YOU were commenting on MY post at the very moment I was commenting on this post. I find this to be meaningful and a good omen.

OMG! I hopped over to my email to send you an email and after I sent it, I found THIS comment.

A good omen, indeed.

Vertical here. Diagonal sandwiches have an instant distribution problem. Too much in the middle and not enough at the tips. Clearly, diagonal sandwich-cutting people are defectives.

I think that’s hilarious.

depends on what kind of sandwich it is.A grilled cheese get cut diagnally,other get cut straight.

My mom always cut my sandwiches horizontally but I cut mine diaginally just to be different from her I guess. :)

It’s like this: if the sandwich is cut across (vertically, horizontally, whatever), HOW DO YOU KNOW WHERE TO START???

If it’s cut diagonally, it’s easy. You start eating from the pointy corners.

I prefer mine diagonally but we have no hard rule on this. When the kids have sandwiches they tell me exactly how they want them THAT day. Sometimes it’s “triangles” and sometimes it’s “rectangles”. Sometimes into halves and sometimes quarters. I always ask, if I don’t it WILL be wrong.

I understand completely — my mother always bought Hydrox, not Oreos, because they were cheaper. If we made chocolate chip cookies I was never allowed to use the full bag of chips to make a batch — I had to double it and use only one bag. But we did have a Hostess outlet store near us so we did get that sometimes.

I do cut my sandwiches diagonally because the best part is the pointy corner. LIke the first bite of a piece of pie.

When I was a kid my grandfather used to make me fried bologna sandwiches when I stayed over. Basically he just heated up slices of bologna in a frying pan until it got crispy and served it on white bread (you have to make a few slits around the sides so it stays flat, otherwise it bubbles up in the center.) It’s essentially like a hotdog.

I make this sometimes when I’m craving childhood food and my kids love it. It’s the only way we eat bologna in our house.

I agree. It’s all crust on those first bites, which makes me feel like there is more crust (and therefore less desirable) on a diagonally cut sandwich.

Aha! You’re not the only one who says that. I wonder what psychologically happens with different kinds of sandwiches that calls for different ways to cut them?

Now I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a generational thing. Maybe way back in the day, horizontal was more “in”, but now diagonal is in? Or it’s a generational rebellion thing so you simply do the opposite of your childhood? Who knows?

OK, that…is a very good point.

However, if you eat a non diagonal sandwich enough times, you start to develop a system, and you start at the inside top, of course.

Well, and you know, it’s only wrong because you didn’t ask them. Kids are very adaptable that way. They can change their preferences purely based on what you put in front of them. And it’s usually NOT what you put in front of them.

A piece of pie…well put. Now you just made it sound better.

Yes, we went to some bakery day-old outlet-type store, too, but I think it was for Dolly Madison so we would have stale B-List pastries sometimes.

We were all about the generic off-brand stuff.

And don’t get me started on how she never bought KRAFT Macaroni and Cheese, either.

I’m with Janie… it has to be quarters! Now that I’m an adult, I cut diagonally because like you, my mom use to cut vertically. And you got fake Kool-Aid? I had to drink the school milk because I got it for free.

For some reason, my brain thinks that there is less crust when cut diagonally. But I’m just weird!

In my school, the Partridge family lunch box was IN, not the ha-ha-your-parents-are-poor brown bags.

By the way, just got your book and am loving it. You’re swell.

But… The really really cool kids had the crusts removed too.
Guess whose Mom thought it was wasteful and wouldn’t do that.

Well then I’m the weird one because I think cutting them diagonally makes them seem like they have more crust.

I’ll bet the ha-ha-your-parents-are-poor brown bag kids looked at my Partridge Family lunch box and envied me, while I envied them. I guess I just grew up assuming that whatever I was doing was the non-cool thing.

And BLESS YOU MY CHILD for getting my book and BLESS YOU AGAIN MY CHILD for saying that you’re loving it. And may someone bless you yet a third time for saying I’m swell.

I think you’re swell too.

You’re right. I always thought of the crust-removed kids as horribly spoiled. It was such a royalty-type thing to do.

My sister preferred diagonal and so I “decided” that vertical was my thing and then felt terribly slighted each time my mom couldn’t remember who liked which.

Sandwiches are cut diagonally as they are easier to eat that way. But don’t touch my sandwiches. I want it whole.