Have been chewing over this Washington Post piece from a few months ago: Sandwiches must be cut diagonally, and I’m not taking questions

I’m still unsure why the staff writer has such a strong, non-negotiable preference for diagonally cut sandwiches—so much so to turn it into a published piece for a major paper.

But I grew more interested in the article’s (buried!) cutting-direction decision/rationale from Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman.

Perelman says that no matter the shape of the bread she’s cutting, she always makes the shortest cut, which she says preserves the structural integrity of the sandwich. “Whatever the shorter way is what makes sense to me, because wherever you make a cut, the stuff inside can fall out.”

Which reminds me (a former sandwich artist!), Subway should not have stopped the U-cut approach for opening its sub buns. The U-cut also is a way to keep the “stuff” from falling out!

Who wants to eat a sandwich where more of the filling can fall out?

Things can fall apart into a mess when one doesn’t make the effort to learn about and appreciate the function. Guess that doesn’t matter to those who don’t care or share the objective.

I think Deb Perelman has it right: Go for the shortest cut when the sandwich is two pieces of bread. Let’s do our best to keep things from falling apart.