Cucumber sandwich

A Cucumber sandwich is, unsurprisingly, a sandwich containing cucumber.

A cucumber sandwich contains a number of thin slices of cucumber, with the peel removed, placed on buttered white bread, with another slice of buttered white bread on top. Traditionally the crusts of the bread should be removed and the sandwich sliced diagonally twice. This will create four small triangles. More modern variants do exist involving cream cheese, spices, brown bread, salmon, and even leaving the crusts on. Cucumber sandwich purists would frown on these variants.

Originally cucumber sandwiches formed an integral part of High Tea, a meal served in the afternoon, usually about a quarter to four. They did not contain any protein and so are generally considered 'not filling'. This was deliberate. Because of the cooling nature of cucumber they are often eaten in the summer months or in warmer climates—parts of India for example. The popularity of the cucumber sandwich reached its zenith in the Edwardian era.

They are usually associated with the upper classes of the UK (working people preferred a more filling, protein filled, sandwich) and are often used as a kind of shorthand, in novels and films to refer to upper class people, sometimes in a derogatory way. Some writers have attempted to draw out the association between the daintiness of the sandwich and the perceived effeteness of the British aristocracy.

With the declining popularity of High Tea as an institution in the UK there has been a corresponding decline in the popularity of cucumber sandwiches.