The (not so royal) History of the Sandwich
- Tammy Wallace
- Jun 1, 2024
- 3 min read
photo courtesy of WIX
National Sandwich Day is in November, but there is no barrier to celebrating this wonderful, versatile, portable food every day of the year.
But where did we get the sandwich? A common myth is that the Earl of Sandwich slapped meat between 2 pieces of bread because he didn’t want to stop what he was doing. Et voile, we get The Sandwich. But is that the truth?
Culinary history is full of twists and turns in the stories of culinary creations. And I tried to mine the internet for the true story of The Sandwich. And this is what I found out.
One of the earliest mentions of something sandwich-like is around the First Century BCE. A Jewish elder called Hillel is said to have wrapped a couple of pieces of matzos (a Jewish bread made with unleavened flour) around some nuts, spices, herbs, and fruit. To this day, during Passover, observants will eat a “Hillel Sandwich.”
Fast forward about 1000 years, and we enter Medieval Europe. A wonderful time and place in culinary history – we discover new eating implements (look at my post on “Where did we get the Fork.”). But, while utensils were pretty common, and people drank from cups, plates were not a thing. It was very common for people, noble born or commoner, to eat from trenchers – loaves of bread with the middle scooped out and filled with whatever meat and vegetables were on the menu that night. If the diner was not still hungry, the trencher would be thrown out to the dogs or pigs. If they were, they would eat the remaining bread.
What we now know as the sandwich didn’t really make an appearance until the later part of the 18th century. This is where we get the story of the Earl of Sandwich creating the first, well, sandwich. The story that has come down to us is that the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu, was deep into a 24-hour gambling session.
Rules being that gamers can’t leave the table unless they are done with that hand, the Earl didn’t want to leave when he became a little peckish. So, grabbing an aide or servant, the Earl demanded a dish similar to what he had seen, or eaten when he had traveled the Mediterranean in his younger years. It was a couple of slices of pita bread, still very common in the Mediterranean, with some appetizers (one would think meat, cheese, or veggies) in between the slices.
Thereafter refreshed, the Earl continued with his game. The stories do not say what game it was, or if he won. So, while he didn’t REALLY invent the sandwich, he is given the credit. I wonder if he received royalties. Whatever he received, The Sandwich became a popular request for fast, filling, food. And gamblers around the world raise a glass to that rascally Earl who made 24-hour gambling fests possible.
So, how did the sandwich become a global phenomenon? Well, that is quite possibly a European cookbook author named Elizabeth Leslie. Ms. (Mrs.?) Leslie published her “Directions for Cookery” in 1850 and one recipe called for some bread “sliced very neatly, having slightly buttered (the slices); and, if you choose, spread on a very little mustard. Have ready some very thin slices of cold boiled ham, and lay one between two slices of bread. You may either roll them up, or lay them flat on the plates.” And this was considered a main dish in her book, much like it is today.
I love my vegan cheese sandwich with vegan mayo topped with some crunchy potato chips with a side of vegan potato salad. But I didn't think sandwiches were considered a main dish unless you were a starving college student.
But it was a later invention in the United States that gave us the modern sandwich. An enterprising man in Iowa, Otto Rohwedder, invented the first bread slicer in 1920. This made slicing bread so easy for housewives and sandwich chefs that it spawned the term “the greatest thing since sliced bread” to mean something that makes life better in every way.
I’m sure that something that occurred not 10 years later, the Great Depression, made sandwiches even better. There has never been anything less expensive to make, and eat, than some sliced meat or cheese between 2 slices of bread.
So, what is your favorite sandwich?
For more information on the history of the sandwich, check out these websites:
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