Benedictine

No green food coloring. Not only is that not a Kentucky tradition, it looks terribly artificial. I once worked for a chef who outlawed dyes of any sort in the kitchen by saying, "Those are Sears colors. They're not found in nature."

I don't have the wrist power to squeeze dry the cucumbers anymore, so I put the grated cukes into a colander, put a clean towel over them with a heavy weight on top of that and let them drain. It worked. The sandwiches looked and tasted terrific.

I salted the cucumber and let sit in a colander for about 30 minutes, then squeezed out excess water. Didn't need to add extra salt.

This sounds remarkably close in taste and application to cucumber raita in South Asia though obviously westernized and with a thicker, whipped quality as a 'spread.' To make the raita follow the same directions but replace the cream cheese/mayo with yogurt and top with chili, cumin, and black salt powders and serve with any curry, biryiani, etc. Also in India, we may use regular onions rather than spring onions, but scallions would be brighter, greener, so why not leave them in for the raita.

What, no drop of green food coloring? Green Benedictine and golden pimento cheese tea sandwiches with rosy ham biscuits are the colors of the Derby! It’s a colorful celebration, as the hats can attest, so go for that all important drop of green.