Benedictine (spread)

Benedictine or Benedictine spread is a spread made with cucumbers and cream cheese.^[1][2][3] Invented near the beginning of the 20th century,^[1] it was originally and still is used for making Benedictine sandwiches, a type of cucumber sandwich, but it also has been used as a dip^[3][4] or combined with meat in a sandwich.^[5][6] This spread can be obtained pre-made from some Louisville, Kentucky-area grocery stores.^[7]

Benedictine

Benedictine spread, which is used as a filling for Benedictine sandwiches
Type	Sandwich filling
Place of origin	United States
Region or state	Louisville, Kentucky
Created by	Jennie Carter Benedict
Serving temperature	cold or room temperature
Main ingredients	Cucumbers, cream cheese
Ingredients generally used	onion, mayonnaise

Although benedictine is rarely seen in restaurants outside the state of Kentucky, it has been written about in articles in national publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Saveur Magazine, and also reported about on multimedia outlets such as the Food Network and NPR.

A benedictine-based sandwich was featured on the Food Network's 50 States 50 Sandwiches program in 2012,^[8] on the television shows of celebrity chefs Paula Deen^[9] and Damaris Phillips,^[5] in Southern Living magazine as one of June's "2011 Best Recipes" for their corresponding issue,^[10] in Garden & Gun magazine,^[11] in PopSugar,^[12][13] and in the Smithsonian's Folklife Magazine.^[14]

History

Benedictine spread and the Benedictine sandwich was invented around the end of the 19th century by Jennie Carter Benedict (1860–1928), a caterer, restaurateur and cookbook author in Louisville, Kentucky.^[15][16] Benedict opened a kitchen for providing catering services in 1893, and in 1900 opened a restaurant and tea room called Benedict's.^[15] It was probably during her catering period when she invented and originally served benedictine.^[17]

Benedict's cookbooks are still being sold a century after they were first published. For example, her The Blue Ribbon Cook Book, which first published in 1902, has been reprinted numerous times and recently in 2008.^[18] Although early editions of this book do not contain a recipe for the spread,^[19] the 2022 edition does.^[20]

Ingredients and preparation

The original Benedictine recipe by Benedict, as reported by the Louisville Courier-Journal and NPR, included cream cheese, cucumber juice, onion juice, salt, cayenne pepper, and a couple drops of green food coloring.^[2][3]

Modern variants of the recipe typically call for grated or chopped cucumber, chopped onions, mayonnaise, and dill, and often omit the food coloring.^[1][3][21]

Benedictine sandwiches are typically served as a type of tea sandwich or finger sandwich, with crusts trimmed and the sandwich cut into four pieces, either fingers or triangles, to make them convenient to eat with one hand.^[16] Garden & Gun called them Kentucky's answer to the pimiento cheese sandwich.^[22]

Preparation of Benedictine sandwiches

• 
  Ingredients for Benedictine spread: cream cheese, green onions, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, chopped cucumbers, dill
• 
  Benedictine spread
• 
  Benedictine tea sandwiches

See also

• Food portal

• Pimento cheese
• Tzatziki
• Cuisine of Kentucky
• History of Louisville, Kentucky
• List of common dips
• List of sandwiches