It depends very much what is on it. I like open-face sandwiches and diagonally cutting those can be too messy, but a grilled cheese is perfect when cut diagonally, so is buttered toast, IMPO.

If I have a boule, with double sized slices, I often fold and tear, but if I have a knife handy, I do cut it. For bread and butter or cheese, I might tear a slice into pieces, like one would a roll. For toast, no. I'll cut a sandwich, but usually just down the middle. I've been known to nibble the crusts off separated, but I don't remove them.

The exception to all that is tea sandwiches or canapes. Usually crusts off, cut into interesting shapes. I usually do knife cuts, because cookie cutters are wasteful unless I have a way of using the rest.

diagonally!

I grew up with straight. And thought that diagonal was something really cool looking that other moms did. Coincidentally my wife says the same thing, we laughed when we realized we grew up with the same thoughts on the matter.

I was going to say similar to what Carol said. A “salad” sandwich would be straight, easier to keep things in. Grilled cheese diagonal. So it depends on what’s in it. Or my mood.

Breakfast toast, triangles. Toast for pâté, strips. Soldiers for boiled eggs.

No.

Madonna

Same as FOAS! I was so envious of my friends who had sandwiches in their school lunches that were cut on the diagonal. I was certain they must have tasted better. I always cut on the diagonal now, for everything and I think of that every time I do.

I never take off the crusts, but for the sandwiches and toast I make for my grandson. He won't eat it and I found he left too much of his sandwich if he just ate to the crusts. So, I take them off.

I had trouble as a kid handling sandwiches cut down the center. My father started cutting them in quarters, which worked fine. there were some fillings that didn't like quarters, however, so he cut diagonals. That worked for everything but tuna salad or egg salad, so he cut those in diagonal quarters. And sometimes he alternated just for fun. :)

I too make The Cut by what it is. Toast is usually cut in two.

I agree the Grilled Cheese needs to be diagonal so you can dip it in the tomato soup better.

I only trim the the edges when the bread is especially crusty and not nice to eat...... and, Grilled Cheese. ???

It’s funny what you say about, when a kid, wishing Mom would cut your sandwiches diagonally.... me too! 🤗

I cut sandwiches in half, straight. I find they are messier when cut diagonally, and so I think they are easier to eat without spilling contents if they are cut straight.

Usually my bread does not have square corners (unless I make it in a Pullman pan), and so cutting diagonally doesn't look great anyway. I never remove crusts.

I was told that eating the crust made your hair curly. It worked.

Being the “Fancy Nancy” that I am, I always cut diagonally. The same as others have mentioned, Mom only cut straight and always thought it would be more elegant on the diagonal. The only time I trim the crusts are when I make a platter of tea sandwiches. Oh, but I also trim the crusts when I make my curried chicken rolls that are brushed with butter and baked.

Funny how many of us had the same childhood memory of others’ diagonally sliced sandwiches!

As for the crust, for a while I was cutting the crust off of my daughter’s bread for her school lunch. Along with cutting the “crust” off of every slice of balogna or ham or whatever went with the bread. Then I found out she was throwing out the bread and just eating the meat. So I stopped cutting the crust.

Breakfast toast, whole not cut. Sandwiches, straight down the middle. Never diagonal. Leave on the crusts. I grew up with the quote, "Waste not, want not."

::hanging head:: I never knew my diagonally cut sandwiches were such a thing of envy. I'm sorry. :(

Although it is rare for me to make a sandwich, I usually will make it on some kind of roll and cut it into quarters.

My Mom always packed me a small thermos of soup and half a sandwich. One slice of bread folded in half from top to bottom. Except on special occasions when I would get cocoa. Yum. I like my full-on sandwiches and toast cut on the diagonal. DH doesn't like his cut in any direction.

My mother always cut my sandwiches on the diagonally. I would not eat crust, so that was cut off. Several years ago, I stopped by my now-quite elderly aunt’s house for lunch. She made pimento cheese, my fav. And, of course, she cut the crust off my sandwich. Spoiled much? Who me? I was an only child and an only grandchild for years. I was spoiled rotten by my aunts and uncles!

P.S. When it comes to toast, I want what Sister and I call “floppy toast.” That is toast that is made in an oven, not a pop up toast. It is barely toasted, just a soupçon of brown around the edges. And loaded with butter. Mother referred to it as “warm bread.”

All bread and toast cut catty-corner

My toast is my own baguette, toasted so I just eat whole....any sandwich is cut diagonally as is toast made from bread cooked in a bread pan.
My kids would leave the crusts of a sandwich, and I complained... they "didn't like the crust1!" so I started cutting off the crust and found they still left the edge. Well that was enough of that!!

I'll fold a sandwich into a rectangle if only using one slice of bread. If using two slices it is cut diagonally.

Islay Corbel: I only recently learned of soldiers. A novel I read talked of a family eating dippy eggs and soldiers. I googled to find out what that meant. Once I knew, I cut strips of toast and dipped the "soldiers" into the gooey yolk of my soft boiled egg. Yum!

my grandmother used to make bread slices, buttered and cut diagonally, with a tiny sprinkle of sugar on top ... those were good

I usually cut brakfast toast vertically into 3 or 4 toast ‘fingers’. Most other sandwiches are cut diagonally in quarters. I leave crusts on except for tea sandwiches.

Just this year, I learned to cut my toast and sandwiches vertically in half. that way I get top and bottom crust. I've always halved them horizontally.

I seldom cut diagonally, only for grilled cheese for dipping in ketchup.

I, too, was envious of kids with the triangular cut sandwiches! I wonder what those kids thought of our half cuts. It's also interesting that as an adult, able to choose, I tend to prefer the half cut most of the time. It just seems more practical for holding in the contents, unless it's a grilled cheese.

I always cut my sandwiches vertically, so that the halves will be symmetrical. Often I only eat half a sandwich, and it is easier to put half a sandwich in a sandwich bag if it is cut vertically. I also make tortas (Mexican sandwiches) using bolillos, which are either round or oval in shape. I make wraps or burritos using flour tortillas as often as I make sandwiches.

I will sometimes cut my bread in half, to make two thinner slices. The idea is to eat less bread . . . Do this routinely with bagels, it is easier.

As is usual for me, my preferences are all over the place. I'll cut my morning toast on the diagonal, just because that's habit, I don't really have a preference. Ashley always wanted her toast cut into four "fingers" so she could dunk them into jam, the runny egg yolk or her hot chocolate. Everyone eats the crust on the bread except my mother, but Ashley used to like me to cut the crusts off white bread, roll it flat with a rolling pin, spread with peanut butter and jelly and then slice them into bite sized rolls.

And, of course, because I've always just been "so extra" (according to the grandkids), my girls had sandwiches in their lunches that I cut with cookie cutters into hearts, "ham and cheese boys", Christmas trees, whatever suited me and the occasion.

I do like sandwiches cut, seldom whole, even hamburgers. No matter how I handle it, if I pick up a whole, uncut sandwich I manage to spill the filling out the other side. And, of course, sometimes I eat it with a knife and fork because today's sandwiches have gotten so big that I sometimes just take off the top slice of bread and use that as chicken food because the sandwich is 5 inches thick and 4 inches of that is bread! I'm not talking about my own kitchen, of course, but back when we used to actually pick up a sandwich occasionally, like if we were driving somewhere.

Annie

My bread is seldom cut unless it is a large sandwich. Grilled cheese diagonally. Toast, not cut, sometimes just broken in pieces.

Sue

I choose the form of how to cut the bread for the filling. The optimal shape is rectangular, but sometimes a round sausage does not fit well.

I tend to cut sandwiches in a rectangular, as most fillings do better with this. Grilled cheese I like diagonally usually, even if no soup is served - habit. French toast on the diagonal (not sure why). I don't slice our breakfast toast. It's kinda hard to glom on a huge pile of jam on half a piece of toast, whereas I can easily pile 8-9 Tbs in the middle of a whole un-sliced piece if I'm careful. Ok, I'm kidding. I do like jam, but not that much, LOL! And if I put an egg on toast, it's in several tiny bite-sized squares before I put fork to mouth ; ) Artisan bread, just baked, I'll slice for us, then we'll pull chunks off our own thick-cut slices to eat. BLT's are most often cut in the middle, but sometimes I cut on the diagonal because I like the challenge of trying to make sure there are tiny pieces of bacon, lettuce, and tomato in each little diagonal - and that they won't fall out. I'm pretty sure this implies masochistic tendencies ; )

Weird thing, though. If I make sandwiches for lunch, DH asks me to cut them in half. Since Covid, he's made them, and he never slices them. Ha!

I grew up with sandwiches always cut on the diagonal and continued doing that in my own household for many years. However, in the past year, I have quit cutting the sandwich at all. It seems that my hand can hold the whole sandwich much easier than holding half a sandwich.

I made pain de mie yesterday and decided that since it is almost square, I would cut sandwiches into triangles.

When I went to the store on Tuesday, they were out of mayo, and I did not want to make my own, since we are going back to Cathedral City tomorrow. I will take the bread with me, although I was slightly disappointed in it, partly because I could not find whole wheat flour Tuesday and therefore had to make white bread.

When I made the bread, the dough rose quite a bit more than usual, as I generally make it with whole wheat or rye flour, and so I had to push the dough down to get the top of the Pullman loaf pan to close. The bread came out a bit denser than I like for white bread, but it is easy to slice very thinly. I did have to trim the crusts before toasting the bread for the sandwiches because the bread came out with thick, tough crusts, even though I buttered them when it came out of the oven.

I will definitely try to go back to whole wheat pan de mie in the future, but if I have to make white bread, I might reduce the recipe a bit. I will not be taking my Pullman pan to CC, however. I might decide I like the dense white bread for sandwiches, but I cannot tell yet. It is certainly easier to cut into triangles, but I really do not like eating triangular sandwiches.

The square sliced Swiss cheese does fit better on this bread, but normally I use round sliced Provolone on sandwiches. I use Swiss cheese mostly for Reuben sandwiches, and those require rye bread and sauerkraut, and I always have sauerkraut.