Cool cucumber and cream cheese paste tinted pale green, served on white bread for the city's signature tea sandwich. The Derby weekend snack.
Jennie Carter Benedict opened a Louisville catering kitchen in 1893 and a downtown tea room called Benedict's around 1900, where she developed Benedictine spread to fill cucumber sandwiches. Her original recipe combined cream cheese, cucumber juice, onion juice, salt, cayenne pepper and a slight amount of green food colouring. The spread was published in her 1902 cookbook and became a Louisville home-kitchen staple for over a century. Most pre-made versions still follow Benedict's recipe; modern chefs sometimes drop the food colouring.
2 editor picks for Benedictine spread in Louisville, ranked by editorial score. All Louisville signature dishes · Benedictine spread across every city.
J. Graham's Cafe ★ 4.6
downtown · 335 West Broadway, Louisville, KY 40202
J. Graham's Cafe in the Brown Hotel serves Louisville's original Hot Brown, the open-faced turkey-and-Mornay sandwich invented here in 1926.
Wagner's Pharmacy ★ 4.2
south-louisville · 3113 South 4th Street, Louisville, KY 40214
Wagner's Pharmacy on South 4th in Louisville has cooked breakfast since 1922, the Derby-week diner across from Churchill Downs that locals call the city's true racetrack canteen.