History Cookbook: Cucumber (and Mint) Sandwiches

Cucumber sandwiches were often served as part of a formal afternoon tea. They had been very fashionable for the upper classes in the Edwardian era and had now become part of ordinary people's afternoon tea.

Lyon's Corner Houses were a popular place for people to go and have tea, scones and sandwiches. This recipe comes from a former employee of Lyons, Mrs Olive Bloomfield.

• 8 slices of white bread, sliced thinly
• 1 oz butter
• 16-18 mint leaves
• the juice of half a lemon (2 tablespoons roughly)
• half a cucumber

• Small bowl
• Bread knife
• Butter knife
• Peeler
• Plate

1. Marinade the mint leaves in the lemon juice for a few minutes
2. Cut the bread into thin slices and butter each side with butter
3. Remove the crusts making sure the slices are square
4. First wash the cucumber
5. Then peel the rind into a ‘stripe’ all around the fruit like a stick of rock
6. Then slice very thin
7. Put 5 pieces of cucumber on one slice of the bread like the number 5 on a dice and lay two mint leaves over the top
8. Place another slice of the bread on top
9. Cut the sandwich into four triangles and display on a plate with a sprig of cucumber and a mint leaf