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Eating My Words: Oscar Wilde’s Cucumber Sandwiches

Written by Rebecca Peters-Golden

I’ll just come right out and say it. I wish I were having high tea in some fabulous peri-London estate garden.

I’d be shaded from the few rays of sun the leaves don’t filter out by a tasteful parasol and wearing a scarf against the beginnings of a late afternoon chill. With a way better accent.

There simply comes a moment in every summer when I feel like the responsibility of cooking for myself in my un-air-conditioned kitchen should be lifted from my shoulders.

cucumber tea sandwiches inspired by Oscar Wilde, via www.goodfoodstories.com
Photo: Casey Barber

Instead, I should be able to sip from hand-painted china and dine on delicacies that possess no nutritional value whatsoever, if only for a day. Now is that moment.

Absent such a garden paradise, I have decided that instead I shall create a high tea for myself, complete with a lovely brew and some delicate cucumber sandwiches

And I need look no further than one of my favorite human beings, Oscar Wilde, for inspiration.

cucumber tea sandwiches inspired by Oscar Wilde, via www.goodfoodstories.com
Photo: Casey Barber

Oscar Wilde is, as you likely know, a master of showing how the things we dismiss because they are superficial and hedonistic are actually essential to who we are.

Cucumber sandwiches have long been a staple of the leisure class’ tea due to the fact that they were not filling, like a meal a laborer would need, but merely delicately delicious.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Algernon orders cucumber sandwiches especially for Aunt Augusta’s appearance at tea, but while waiting for her to arrive, eats them all and doesn’t notice.

And, although the frivolous delicacy was to be there by her request, Aunt Augusta doesn’t even care:

Jack: Why cucumber sandwiches? Why such reckless extravagance in one so young? Who is coming to tea?
Algernon: Oh! merely Aunt Augusta and Gwendolen. . . . Please don’t touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered specially for Aunt Augusta. (Takes one and eats it.)
Jack: Well, you have been eating them all the time.
Algernon: That is quite a different matter. She is my aunt. . . .
Lady Bracknell: I’m sorry if we are a little late, Algernon, but I was obliged to call on dear Lady Harbury. I hadn’t been there since her poor husband’s death. I never saw a woman so altered; she looks quite twenty years younger. And now I’ll have a cup of tea, and one of those nice cucumber sandwiches you promised me.
Algernon: Certainly, Aunt Augusta. (Goes over to tea-table.) . . . (picking up empty plate in horror). Good heavens! Lane! Why are there no cucumber sandwiches? I ordered them specially.
Lady Bracknell: It really makes no matter, Algernon. I had some crumpets with Lady Harbury, who seems to me to be living entirely for pleasure now.

cucumber tea sandwich ingredients, via www.goodfoodstories.com
Photo: Casey Barber

Traditional British cucumber sandwiches are made with butter on the bread and lemon on the cucumber, but I prefer what is apparently the more Americanized version, which uses cream cheese in place of butter and gets nowhere near a lemon.

However, I’ll stick with the tradition of making these indulgently delicate sandwiches on super-thinly sliced bread–Pepperidge Farm’s aptly named Very Thin bread, to be specific.

cucumber tea sandwiches inspired by Oscar Wilde, via www.goodfoodstories.com
Photo: Casey Barber

Though it comes in both white and whole wheat versions, this is not a meal about nutrition. It’s about frivolity, and thus, white bread is the appropriate choice for the occasion.

As cucumber sandwiches are one of the more delightful pleasures in the world, it’s easy to eat the entire tray of them at one sitting, as I did.

But, as Oscar Wilde clarifies, “I can resist everything except temptation.”

cucumber tea sandwiches inspired by Oscar Wilde, via www.goodfoodstories.com

Oscar Wilde’s Tempting and Irresistible Cucumber Sandwiches

Yield: about 30 sandwiches
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

Summery cucumber sandwiches with a thin layer of cream cheese are delicately frivolous snacks on hot days. They're too tempting, even for Oscar Wilde.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium to large garlic clove
  • kosher salt
  • 1 8-ounce tub cream cheese, whipped or regular
  • 3 tablespoons minced fresh chives (about 1 clamshell package)
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 medium to large cucumber
  • 1 loaf Pepperidge Farm Very Thin bread—I like the whole wheat, but I recommend white

Instructions

  1. Slice the garlic clove in half lengthwise and remove the germ.
  2. Mince the garlic, then sprinkle a pinch of salt over the pieces and run the side of your knife across the pile to smoosh the salt into the garlic. Mince again, and repeat once more to turn the garlic into a pulpy paste.
  3. Scoop the cream cheese into a mixing bowl and add the garlic paste, chives, and a pinch of black pepper. Stir to incorporate, adding more salt and pepper to your taste.
  4. Peel the cucumber if desired and slice as thinly as possible—preferably about a millimeter thick (if you’re a mandoline enthusiast, this is a good time to pull yours out). If your cucumbers are too thick, your slices of bread will skid off each other when you go to slice your sandwich.

Assemble your sandwiches:

  1. Spread cream cheese thinly across each slice of bread and evenly covering half the cream cheese-covered slices with rounds of the translucently thin cucumber.
  2. Sprinkle a tiny amount of salt on the cucumbers, if you like (I do!), and top with another piece of bread.
  3. Cut the crusts off to leave yourself with a perfect square of sandwich. You can decide how to divide it: into quarters, rectangles, two triangles? Just ask yourself, What Would Wilde Do?
  4. Eat with reckless abandon.

Notes

You can, of course, add other things to cucumber sandwiches if you so desire. As something of a purist, the only thing I ever add is watercress, but you could conceivably add arugula, thinly sliced radish, very thinly sliced ham, or any other favorite garnish.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 245Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 38mgSodium: 173mgCarbohydrates: 26gFiber: 4gSugar: 2gProtein: 8g

The nutritional information above is computer-generated and only an estimate.

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5 Comments

  1. I am definitely making these for a mid-Sept outdoor dinner party I’m planning! The mashed garlic and snipped chives in the cream cheese sounds delicious. (And I love the thought of occasionally asking myself, What Would Wilde Do?)

  2. Cream cheese (with vegetables) and thinly sliced cucumber on a croissant. Absolutely to die for!!! Oscar, let’s have brunch!!!

  3. I LOVE CUCUMBER SANDWICHES!

    My latest obsession these days for a nice light snack are cucumber sandwiches! So delicious and so refreshing. Especially when the cucumbers are from my own garden.

    I love your version of this recipe . Never even crossed my mind to use garlic and I love garlic !!
    Thanks for sharing this I will definitely try this one :)

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