Buckingham Palace Garden Party Cucumber Sandwiches

"Cucumber sandwiches are made with fresh springy white or brown bread, lightly buttered, and with the crusts cut off – the perfect cool summer snack to go with your afternoon tea. This recipe idea came from a friend who was lucky enough to attend a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace - she swears this is how they made them! Cucumber sandwiches achieved literary notoriety in Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) when Algernon devours an entire plate full in the first act and there are none left for his aunt, Lady Bracknell. They are presented by Jack as being a delicacy: “Hallo! Why all these cups? Why cucumber sandwiches? Why such reckless extravagance in one so young? Who is coming to tea?”"
 
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photo by kiwidutch photo by kiwidutch
photo by kiwidutch
photo by tunasushi photo by tunasushi
photo by Ambervim photo by Ambervim
photo by the80srule photo by the80srule
photo by Sweetiebarbara photo by Sweetiebarbara
Ready In:
5mins
Ingredients:
6
Yields:
16 Quarters
Serves:
16
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ingredients

  • 12 thin cucumber
  • 4 slices brown bread, sliced
  • 4 slices white bread, sliced
  • 2 ounces fresh unsalted butter
  • 12 - 1 teaspoon finely chopped of fresh mint
  • 12 to taste salt and pepper
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directions

  • Peel cucumber and slice in paper-thin rounds. Salt rounds lightly and place in colander for 15 minutes to drain. Press to release water; pat dry with paper towels.
  • Spread sliced bread with softened butter. Put 2 layers of cucumber slices on bottom slice, sprinkle with finely chopped mint, salt and pepper to taste, and top with another buttered slice. Press lightly with palm of hand.
  • Cut all crusts off with a sharp knife. Cut sandwiches in half diagonally and then again into quarters.
  • Serve in alternate rows of brown and white bread sandwiches, points facing up!

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Reviews

  1. Another traditional high tea treat. On this one I also mixed 1 part butter to 2 parts cream cheese. Yummy. If you need to make tea sandwiches in advance and need to keep them from drying out, cover them loosely with a sheet of wax paper and then place a damp kitchen towel over the wax paper (never place a damp towel directly on top of the bread because the sandwiches will become soggy). Refrigerate. When ready to serve, remove from refrigerator. Uncover sandwiches just before serving.
     
  2. So simple and so good! Made two of your sandwiches in a week and I'm in love with both of them.This one is DD's favorite new sandwich. No brown bread so I just used white. I used again Recipe #335718 for mint. I made little ones for DD's size.Thanks for sharing another great recipe.
     
  3. I lik cumber sadwitches, butt dese'r nassty
     
  4. What a refreshing little treat. I used basic items I had on hand for these. I had a thinly sliced loaf of very soft white bread, a hot house cucumber, good European butter, and dried spearmint. The mint is definitely the finishing touch, even in dried form. Just making these cucumber sandwiches made me want to throw a tea party. I will surely be making these sandwiches often over the summer with cucumbers from my garden. No cucumber tastes as marvelous as one freshly plucked from the vine and still warm from the sun. Next time I make these I plan on using a good multi-grain loaf, the texture of different grains would compliment the cucumbers and butter when chilled. Radishes might be a pleasant addition also. Excited to keep experimenting with different variations.
     
  5. Easy to make and lovely flavor! Great for a light veggie sandwich...the mint definitely makes this complete. I used one slice of white and one slice of wheat for each sandwich, great color contrast for presentation. Thanks for sharing!
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p><strong><span>The sunflowers in the field behind my house in SW France:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Sunflowers src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/DSCN8221.jpg alt=Sunflowers width=640 height=480 /><br /><strong><span><br /><br />I am British (English-Scottish), but I was born in South Africa and have lived all over the world, including Hong Kong, Germany, Cyprus, USA &amp; Singapore. I have also been very fortunate to have travelled extensively over the years.........I still have wanderlust! <br /><br />I used to be an English Literature &amp; Art History teacher &amp; lecturer; before that, I trained and worked as a Graphic Designer for many years. I now live in France with my husband &amp; my daughter who has just started university in September 2006. We also have one very chatty Burmese cat Willow, who allows us to live with her here! (I used to have three cats, I recently lost Monty, a beautiful seal point Siamese and before that, Rama, who was a debonair blue point Siamese cat - I would love to have another Siamese cat or cats in the future!)</span></strong></p> <p><em><strong><span>This is my Burmese Cat, Willow, sunning herself on the log pile in the kitchen garden:</span></strong></em></p> <p><strong><img title=My src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/ABaconButtyandSundryFoodPhotos34.jpg alt=My width=640 height=480 /></strong></p> <p><strong><span>Here is my lovely Monty, a seal point Siamese, and Willow, sitting&nbsp;in the kitchen garden last year, and a few months before Monty died; he was 18yrs old:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Monty src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/AbsolutelySinfulStickyToffeePudding.jpg alt=Monty width=640 height=480 />My</p> <p><strong><span>This is my wonderful old boy, Rama, a blue-point Siamese, who died when he was 20yrs old - excuse the old and much sellotaped photo:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Rama src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/Rama1stOctober2004164.jpg alt=Rama width=517 height=639 /></p> <p><strong><span>My favourite pastimes are: reading, writing, painting &amp; drawing, photography, gardening, anything creative, walking, travelling, dining out and of course COOKING! I love all types of cuisine, but especially Traditional British - and NO it is NOT all bad!! I particularly love food associated with the changing seasons plus traditional feasts &amp; festivals, as well as Slow Cooking. I also enjoy French &amp; North African cuisine, come to think of it, there isn't much I don't like! <br /><br />My husband &amp; I run a Chambres D'Hotes, (Bed and Breakfast) called Auberge de la Fontaine here in beautiful South West France; we specialise in Gourmet Food &amp; Wine Breaks, French Antiques &amp; Restoration courses, French Language courses and French Cookery classes. Our home is completely furnished with Antique French furniture that we have rescued &amp; restored ourselves. Our charming village has one of the oldest Churches in the region &amp; it is famous for its connection with the St.Jacques de Compostella Pilgrimage route, as well as being within the Cognac &amp; Bordeaux wine growing area. <br /><br />We have a wonderful garden where we grow ALL of our own herbs and most of our fruit and vegetables. I specialise in rare, unusual and old-fashioned herbs, which I grow in our walled garden. As well as growing herbs, I also grow many different varieties of lavender, old-fashioned shrub roses and heirloom fruit and vegetables. <br /><br />We have lived overseas for many, many years now - but we both still love going home to Northern England, near Scarborough &amp; York, to visit our family &amp; friends. We also love indulging in dining out when we are there, in a wide variety of EXCELLENT Gastro-Pubs that we have in North Yorkshire; and popping in to have a Pint of REAL ENGLISH ALE in our local pub is a always a must!! <br /></span></strong></p> <p><br /><a href=http://photobucket.com/images/merci%20beaucoup target=_blank><img src=http://i420.photobucket.com/albums/pp287/vi-vie15/Merci/hb09izl7.gif border=0 alt=merci /></a> <br /><br /><strong><span>A Message to all who make and review my recipes! I try very hard to reply to EACH and EVERYONE of you who kindly makes, reviews and photographs my recipes! However, sometimes I am so busy in the B and B, and with other things, that I may be late in sending a personal thank you message, and sometimes I forget completely! I would just like to thank you ALL in advance, and just in case I am late or forgetful in sending a personal thanks. 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