sandwich

1. 1. Two or more slices of bread with a filling such as meat or cheese placed between them.
   2. A partly split long or round roll containing a filling.
   3. One slice of bread covered with a filling.
2. Something resembling a sandwich.

1. To make into or as if into a sandwich.
2. To insert (one thing) tightly between two other things of differing character or quality.
3. To make room or time for: sandwiched a vacation between business trips.

[After John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792), British politician.]

Two slices of bread enclosing a filling (meat, cheese, fish, etc.). Invention attributed to the 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792) who spent long periods at the gaming table and carried a portable meal of beef sandwiched with bread.

Decker sandwiches consist of several layers of bread, each separated by filling; Neapolitan sandwiches are decker sandwiches made with alternating slices of white and brown bread. Open sandwiches (smørrebrød) consist of a single slice of bread, biscuit, or small roll.

The bread-enclosed convenience food known as the "sandwich" is attributed to John Montagu, fourth earl of Sandwich (1718–1792), a British statesman and notorious profligate and gambler, who is said to be the inventor of this type of food so that he would not have to leave his gaming table to take supper. In fact, Montagu was not the inventor of the sandwich; rather, during his excursions in the Eastern Mediterranean, he saw filled pita breads and small canapés and sandwiches served by the Greeks and Turks during their mezes, and copied the concept for its obvious convenience. There is no doubt, however, that the Earl of Sandwich made this type of light repast popular among England's gentry, and in this way, his title has been associated with the sandwich ever since. The concept is supremely simple: delicate finger food is served between two slices of bread in a culinary practice of ancient origins among the Greeks and other Mediterranean peoples.

Literary references to sandwiches begin to appear in English during the 1760s, not only in connection with their presumed Englishness, but also under the assumption that they are a food consumed primarily by the masculine sex during late night drinking parties. This connotation does not change until the sandwich moves into general society as a supper food for late night balls and similar events toward the end of the eighteenth century.

That sandwich, the creation of caterers, is amply described by Louis Eustache Ude, an illustrious cook who finished his career as chef de cuisine of the Crockford Club in London, in his French Cook (1818). Ude took particular care to outline a proper supper and the critical execution of the superior sorts of English sandwich that originally gave the food its high status. He explained that bread for sandwiches filled with salads must be specially baked in molds so that the texture is dense, though the crust not dry, to avoid sogginess once the sandwiches are stacked on a silver tray, as they should not bend when held in the hand. Breads for other sandwiches should be baked long and round like a tube so that the slices are even and thus fit neatly together without lumpiness or air spaces between. Furthermore, all crusts on sandwich breads should be rasped so that they acquire the texture of chamois. His sandwiches for two or three hundred persons included fillet of guinea fowl with cold béchamel sauce ("make them towards nine o'clock to serve up at twelve"), fillet of pheasant poached in a fumet, fillet of sole à la Ravigotte, salad sandwiches made of small lettuces and cresses ("cut the salad off which protrudes . . . observe much neatness in the preparing of these sandwiches and do not confide them to any of the kitchen maids.") And finally, anchovy sandwiches: "the pieces of anchovy should not touch each other, as they might then be too salt, unless when eaten to assist wine drinking."

Charlotte Mason was one of the first English cookbook authors to provide a recipe for sandwiches, which she published quite appropriately along side other supper dishes like Welsh rarebit and salmagundi (an elaborate ornamental salad): "Put some very thin slices of beef between thin slices of bread and butter; cut the ends off neatly, lay them in a dish. Veal and ham cut thin may be served in the same manner." Her homey recipe is quite different from the sort of grand fare sent up by the likes of Ude, but far more typical of what happened to the sandwich in the hands of Victorian home cooks.

During the nineteenth century, as midday dinner moved later and later into the day, the need for a hot supper declined, only to be replaced with light dishes made of cold leftovers, ingredients for which the sandwich proved preeminently suitable. Thus the sandwich became a fixture of intimate evening suppers, teas, and picnics, and popular fare for taverns and inns. This latter genre of sandwich has given rise to multitudes of working class creations, such as the butty and sarny of Britain, and the bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwich of the American diner. In the home, however, for such meals as English high tea, or the late-night Quaker "tea" parties of nineteenth-century Philadelphia, sandwiches were not usually premade, but rather, sliced bread was provided, enabling diners to assemble a sandwich from the various tidbits laid out for the meal.

Cookbook author Eliza Leslie was one of the earliest American writers to publish sandwich recipes in the United States. Her Directions for Cookery (1837) contained a recipe for what has become a ubiquitous American institution: the ham sandwich. Her sandwich consisted of thinly sliced bread spread with butter and mustard (French mustard flavored with tarragon), and sliced or finely chopped ham, with no other embellishments. "You may either roll them up, or lay them flat on plates. They are used at supper, or at luncheon." The fact that they needed explanation at all may be taken as a sign of their uncommonness outside of urban centers, since the sandwich of the 1830s was still more or less a creature of upper-class cookery; Leslie's use of French mustard gives further evidence of that fact.

During the early years of the railroad, sandwiches proved an ideal form of fast food, especially since they could be sold at train stations when everyone got off to buy snacks. With the appearance of the dining car, the sandwich became a travel-related institution, and it remains so as the typical meal served as lunch on airplanes. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the sandwich came into its own, especially as a response to the Temperance Movement. Taverns and saloons offered free sandwiches with drinks in order to attract customers, which led to the development of many distinctive sandwiches that have endured. In the United States, these include the club sandwich, a multi-layered affair designed to combine two or three types of sandwich into one, a meal in itself, which earned its name through its popularity with businessmen in private dining clubs.

Among working-class men, the submarine loaf became a popular vehicle for hearty sandwiches made with various fillings. This long, narrow Viennese loaf first appeared in the early 1880s as a marketing gimmick in connection with the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta "H. M. S. Pinafore," which features a ditty with sexual innuendos about submarines. The sandwiches made with this type of bread bear different names in different parts of the country: subs, grinders, poor boys, torpedoes, and hoagies, all featuring very localized types of ingredients. For example, the Philadelphia hoagie (derived from "hokeypokey man," the sandwich vendor), contains the essentials of a southern Italian antipasto, including cold cuts, Italian cheeses, peppers, olive oil, and oregano. New England gave birth to the lobster roll: cold, cooked lobster served with mayonnaise in a small toasted submarine loaf (which evolved into hot dog rolls). A hot counterpart to this, the so-called beefsteak sandwich, was first popular in the nineteenth century as fried chipped beef and onions served over toast. Once married to the submarine loaf, it further evolved with the addition of cheese and various hot pepper sauces.

Luncheonettes of the 1920s served grilled cheese sandwiches and the Cuban sandwich, which resembles a hoagie pressed between two hot irons so that it is slightly flattened and hot when eaten. In spite of its association with Havana, this sandwich was created in New York and New Jersey. The most famous of the American hot sandwiches, however, is the Reuben, which was introduced at Reuben's Restaurant in New York City (there was also a branch in Miami, Florida). The restaurant was essentially a Jewish-owned sandwich shop that offered a wide range of creations named after famous personalities of the 1930s and 1940s: Danny Kaye, Hedda Hopper, Judy Garland, Ozzie Nelson, to name just a few. The Reuben Special, the hot grilled sandwich of fame, contained turkey, Virginia ham, Swiss cheese, cole slaw, and Russian salad dressing. The substitution of pastrami and sauerkraut came later, as a courtesy to kosher Jewish customers, who could not eat ham or a mixture of meat and cheese. Reuben also sold steak sandwiches for $2.00 (the most expensive sandwich on the menu), a specialty called Chicken Reubenola, and hamburgers on a roll.

The hamburger, at one time simply a meat patty eaten with bread and gravy, has, in the hands of McDonalds and similar global food chains, become the ultimate industrialized food eaten throughout the world, as well as a dubious symbol of American culture in far-off places. While the Earl of Sandwich might not recognize his finger food thus transmogrified and chef Ude might be appalled by the sloppiness of its presentation, neither could find fault with the hamburger's convenience or its cross-gender, cross-cultural, cross-generational appeal.

Bibliography

Battiscombe, Georgina. English Picnics. London: Country Book Club, 1951.

Leslie, Eliza. Miss Leslie's Directions for Cooking: An Unabridged Reprint of the 1851 Classic. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1999.

Mason, Charlotte. The Lady's Assistant for Regulating and Supplying the Table . . . London: J. Walter, 1773.

Montagu, John, fourth earl of Sandwich. A voyage performed by the late Earl of Sandwich round the Mediterranean in the years 1738 and 1739. London: Printed for T. Cadell Jr. and W. Davies, 1799.

Ude, Louis Eustache. The French Cook. London: John Ebers, 1818.

Wilson, C. Anne. Luncheon, Nuncheon, and Other Meals: Eating with the Victorians. Seventh Symposium on Food History. Dover, N.H.: Alan Sutton, 1994.

—William Woys Weaver

This article's introduction section may not adequately summarize its contents. To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (May 2009)

For other uses, see Sandwich (disambiguation).

A sandwich is a food item made of one or more slices of bread^[1] with one or more fillings.^[2] The bread can be used as is, or it can be coated with butter, oil, mustard or other condiments to enhance flavor and texture.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Etymology 2 Usage 3 List of regional sandwich styles 4 Gallery 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

History

An Italian sandwich

Bread has been eaten with other food since its creation in Neolithic times. For example, the ancient Jewish sage Hillel the Elder is said to have wrapped meat from the Paschal lamb and bitter herbs in a matzah (or flat, unleavened bread) during Passover,^[3] but the concept of a sandwich (as opposed to a wrap) is more recent. During the Middle Ages, thick slabs of coarse and usually stale bread, called "trenchers", were used as plates. After a meal, the food-soaked trencher was fed to a dog or to beggars, or eaten by the diner. Trenchers were as much the harbingers of open-face sandwiches^[4] as they were of disposable dishware. The immediate cultural precursor with a direct connection to the English sandwich was to be found in the Netherlands of the 17th century, where the naturalist John Ray observed^[5] that in the taverns beef hung from the rafters "which they cut into thin slices and eat with bread and butter laying the slices upon the butter"— explanatory specifications that reveal the Dutch belegde broodje was as yet unfamiliar in England.

If it was initially perceived as food men shared while gaming and drinking at night, the sandwich slowly began appearing in polite society as a late-night meal among the aristocracy. The sandwich's popularity in Spain and England increased dramatically during the 19th century, when the rise of an industrial society and the working classes made fast, portable, and inexpensive meals essential.^[6]

It was at the same time that the sandwich finally began to appear outside of Europe. In the United States, the sandwich was first promoted as an elaborate meal at supper. By the early 20th century, as bread became a staple of the American diet, the sandwich became the same kind of popular, quick meal as was widespread in the Mediterranean.^[6]

Etymology

The first written usage of the English word appeared in Edward Gibbon's journal, in longhand, referring to "bits of cold meat" as a 'Sandwich'.^[7] It was named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat, although he was neither the inventor nor sustainer of the food. It is said that he ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread, and because Montague also happened to be the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, others began to order "the same as Sandwich!"^[4] It is said that Lord Sandwich was fond of this form of food because it allowed him to continue playing cards, particularly cribbage, while eating without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands.^[4]

The rumour in its familiar form appeared in Pierre-Jean Grosley's Londres (Neichatel, 1770), translated as A Tour to London 1772;^[8] Grosley's impressions had been formed during a year in London, 1765. The sober alternative is provided by Sandwich's biographer, N. A. M. Rodger, who suggests Sandwich's commitments to the navy, to politics and the arts mean the first sandwich was more likely to have been consumed at his desk.

Usage

Sandwiches are a widely popular type of food. They are taken to work, school or picnics to be eaten as part of a packed lunch. They generally contain a combination of salad vegetables, meat, cheese, and a variety of sauces. They are widely sold in restaurants and cafes.

The term sandwich is occasionally used (informally) in reference to open-faced sandwiches; these normally consist of a single slice of bread topped with meat, salad vegetables, and various condiments, and differs from a normal sandwich in having a single slice of bread instead of two, with toppings instead of a filling.^[9] The open-faced sandwich also has a history differing from that of the true sandwich, having originated between the 6th and 16th centuries, with stale slices of bread used as plates called "Trenchers" (whereas its relative, the modern sandwich, traces its roots to the Earl of Sandwich instead),^[4] In the United States, a court in Boston, Massachusetts ruled that "sandwich" includes at least two slices of bread. ^[2] and "under this definition and as dictated by common sense, this court finds that the term "sandwich" is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos, and quesadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans."^[10] The issue was whether a restaurant which sold burritos could move into a shopping center where another restaurant had a no-compete clause in its lease prohibiting other "sandwich" shops.

The verb to sandwich has the meaning to position anything between two other things of a different character, or to place different elements alternately^[11], and the noun has other meanings derived from this more general definition.

List of regional sandwich styles

Some of these are distinguished primarily by the bread or method of preparation, rather than the filling.

• Banh Mi—Vietnam
• Barros Jarpa—Chile, melted cheese and fried ham
• Barros Luco—Chile, melted cheese and thin fried beef
• Bauru—Brazil, melted cheese and roast beef
• BLT -USA, bacon, lettuce, and tomato
• Breakfast Roll UK & Ireland
• Bun Kabab—Pakistan
• Butterbrot—Germany, Graubrot (grey bread)
• Caprese—mozzarella, tomato, fresh basil
• Cheesesteak—Philadelphia, sandwich made from strips of steak and cheese, sometimes with peppers and onions
• Chimichurris—Dominican Republic, a sandwich made from pork, beef, and sometimes chicken with mayonnaise/ketchup sauce and cabbage.
• Chipped ham—USA (Pittsburgh, PA—made popular by the Isaly's Dairy Store chain)
• Chip butty—UK, chips
• Chivito—Uruguay, steak, ham, and cheese
• Choripán—Argentina and Uruguay, grilled chorizo
• Club sandwich—USA primarily, variety of fillings
• Crisp sandwich—global, uses crisps/potato chips in situ
• Croque-monsieur—France, ham and cheese
• Cuban sandwich—Cuba/South Florida, ham, Swiss cheese and roasted pork
• Cucumber sandwich—England afternoon tea classic
• Dagwood sandwich—USA, distinguished by size more than contents
• Elvis sandwich—USA, fried sandwich containing peanut butter, bananas, and sometimes bacon
• Falafel—typically served in pita bread
• Fluffernutter, New England variation on peanut butter and jelly
• Francesinha—Portugal, made with wet-cured ham, linguiça, other sausages and meat, covered with molten cheese and beer sauce
• Gyros-pita or Souvlaki-pita—Greece, meat in pita bread
• Hamburger—USA, ground meat patty in a round bun
• Hero sandwich—New York, sub
• Hoagie—Pennsylvania, South Jersey, Delaware, similar to sub, uses olive oil
• Horseshoe sandwich—Springfield, IL, an open sandwich topped with French fries and cheese sauce
• Hot Brown—USA (Kentucky)
• Hotdog—Sausage in an oblong bun (origins disputed)
• Italian beef—thin slices of seasoned roast beef, dripping with meat juices, on a dense, long Italian-style roll, believed to have originated in Chicago, where its history dates back at least to the 1930s
• Kummelweck—Buffalo, New York colloquially "beef on weck", roast beef and horseradish on a Kaiser roll topped with pretzel salt and caraway seeds
• Manwich—USA, a sandwich characterized by meat that exceeds the size of the bread, usually made with some sort of beef
• Melt sandwich, Tuna melt, Patty melt, etc.—filling includes melted cheese
• Monte Cristo sandwich—USA, based on fried bread
• Montreal Smoked meat—Canada/Quebec
• Mother-in-law sandwich—Chicagoland fast food staple that features a Mississippi tamale nestled in a hot dog bun and smothered with chili
• Muffuletta—New Orleans, based on Sicilian bread
• Panini—Italy, refers to type of bread
• Pastrami on rye—Classic of the Jewish deli
• Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• Ploughmans A popular UK sandwich compromising of cheese, pickle, tomato, lettuce and onion
• Printzesa-(Princess) Bulgarian. Slice of bread with ground pork/veal, kashkaval, feta or combination and broiled
• Po' boy (literally "poor boy")—USA/New Orleans, similar to sub
• Porilainen—Finland, a bread with thick slice of sausage
• Reuben sandwich—USA, sauerkraut with Swiss cheese and corned beef or pastrami
• Roti john—A variation of sandwich that is very popular in Singapore and Malaysia
• Sandwich loaf—USA, a large multi-layer sandwich made to look like a cake
• Sandwiches de miga—Argentina
• Shaobing Youtiao- China
• Shawarma—a Middle Eastern-style sandwich usually composed of shaved lamb, goat, and/or turkey, rolled inside a taboon bread.
• Sloppy Joe—USA, based on ground beef and flavorings
• Smörgåstårta—Sweden, variety of "sandwich cake"
• Steamed Sandwich—USA/Kentucky
• Submarine sandwich or sub—USA
• Tea sandwich—small sandwiches for afternoon tea
• Toasted sandwich
• Torta—Mexico
• Vada pav—India

Gallery

Club sandwich	French bread sandwich with chips/fries.	Sandwich making	Panino
A Philly cheese steak, a type of submarine sandwich.

See also

Food portal

References

1. ^ Britannica Online
2. ^ ^{a b} Abelson, Jenn. "Arguments spread thick". The Boston Globe, November 10, 2006. Accessed 27 May 2009.
3. ^ Bavli Pesachim 115a; See also Passover Hagadah
4. ^ ^{a b c d} What's Cooking America, Sandwiches, History of Sandwiches. February 2, 2007.
5. ^ Ray, Observations topographical, moral, & physiological; made in a journey through part of the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France... (vol. I, 1673) quoted in Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches (1987:152).
6. ^ ^{a b} Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, Solomon H. Katz, editor (Charles Scribner's Sons: New York) 2003
7. ^ The Oxford English Dictionary gives its appearance as 1762.
8. ^ Grosley, Londres (Neuchatel, 1770) and A Tour to London, or, New observations on England and its inhabitants, translated from the French by Thomas Nugent (London: Printed for Lockyer Davis) 1772; Hexmasters Faktoider: Sandwich: English quotes from Grosley 1772
9. ^ http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/sandwich?view=uk
10. ^ White City Shopping Ctr., LP v. PR Rests., LLC, 21 Mass. L. Rep. 565 (Mass. Super. Ct. 2006)
11. ^ The Oxford English Dictionary

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sandwich

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Sandwich

• The British Sandwich Association
• Scanwich - Scanned Sandwiches for Education and Delight—Blog documenting different types of sandwiches available in New York City by scanning their cross-sections

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Common misspelling(s) of sandwich

• sandwhich

Dansk (Danish)
n. - smørrebrød, sandwich
v. tr. - klemme inde

idioms:

• sandwich board    dobbeltskilt
• sandwich course    teknisk studium med skiftevis teori og praksis
• sandwich man    plakatbærer, sandwichmand

Nederlands (Dutch)
sandwich, broodje, dubbele/belegde boterham, tussen twee dingen plaatsen, in twee lagen vormen

Français (French)
n. - sandwich
v. tr. - prendre en sandwich, coincer entre

idioms:

• sandwich board    panneau publicitaire porté par un homme sandwich
• sandwich course    (GB) cours avec stage pratique
• sandwich man    homme sandwich

Deutsch (German)
n. - Sandwich
v. - einschieben

idioms:

• sandwich board    von einem Sandwichmann getragenes Reklameplakat
• sandwich course    Ausbildung mit abwechselnd theoretischem und praktischem Unterricht
• sandwich man    Sandwichmann

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - σάντουιτς
v. - στριμώχνω, φτιάχνω σάντουιτς

idioms:

• sandwich board    διαφημιστική πινακίδα στο στήθος και στην πλάτη
• sandwich course    μαθήματα θεωρίας εναλλασσόμενης με πρακτική εξάσκηση
• sandwich man    πλανόδιος διαφημιστής (με διαφημιστικές πινακίδες στο στήθος και στην πλάτη)

Italiano (Italian)
tramezzino, panino

idioms:

• sandwich board    cartellone pubblicitario a due facce
• sandwich course    corso di studio e prova pratica
• sandwich man    uomo-sandwich

Português (Portuguese)
n. - sanduíche (m)
v. - ensanduichar

idioms:

• sandwich board    tábua de pão
• sandwich course    cursos que alternam estágio e estudos
• sandwich man    homem sanduíche

Русский (Russian)
сандвич, бутерброд, слоистая конструкция, вставлять (между), помещать посередине, втискивать, прослаивать

idioms:

• sandwich board    рекламные щиты
• sandwich course    курс обучения, чередующий теорию с практикой, комбинированное обучение
• sandwich man    человек-реклама

Español (Spanish)
n. - emparedado, sándwich, bocadillo, bocata
v. tr. - intercalar, poner entre dos pedazos de pan, poner entre dos cosas iguales

idioms:

• sandwich board    carteles que lleva el hombre anuncio (colgados del pecho y la espalda)
• sandwich course    curso teórico-práctico
• sandwich man    hombre anuncio

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - smörgås, engelsk lunchsmörgås
v. - skjuta in, sticka emellan

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
三明治, 夹在一起的东西, 三明治状物, 把...做成三明治, 将...夹在中间, 挤进

idioms:

• sandwich board    挂在身上的广告牌
• sandwich course    工读交替制课程
• sandwich man    挂广告牌的人

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 三明治, 夾在一起的東西, 三明治狀物
v. tr. - 把...做成三明治, 將...夾在中間, 擠進

idioms:

• sandwich board    掛在身上的廣告牌
• sandwich course    工讀交替制課程
• sandwich man    掛廣告牌的人

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 샌드위치, 샌드위치 모양의 것
v. tr. - 샌드위치 사이에 끼우다, ~을 위하여 시간을 내다, (억지로) 끼우다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - サンドイッチ, サンドイッチケーキ
v. - 挟み込む, 割り込ませる

idioms:

• sandwich board    サンドイッチマンの広告板
• sandwich course    サンドイッチコース
• sandwich man    サンドイッチマン

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) شطيرة, سندويش (فعل) يقحم بين شيئين أو شخصين‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כריך, עוגת-רבדים, סנדוויץ'‬
v. tr. - ‮הרביד, דחק, הכניס‬

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