Where did sandwiches come from? And who is the Earl of Sandwich?
The origin story of the sandwich is often told with the same opening act.
Some time in the mid 1700’s John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, was gambling with some friends. To capitalize on a winning streak, he skipped dinner, preferring to call on his manservant to bring him a snack. The pioneering earl requested a slice of beef between two pieces of bread and thus ‘the Sandwich’ was born.
But is this really the true history of the sandwich?
Well, maybe for the name. This fabled tale of an old English statesman too lazy to leave his game of cards may have some crumbs of truth to it. However, the story of the food itself has a lot more for us to sink our teeth into.
For Pita's Sake
To understand the full story behind John Montagu’s culinary creation we need to look in his passport, rather than his pantry.
As many wealthy Englishmen did in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Earl of Sandwich went on the Grand Tour. Travelling widely around the Eastern Mediterranean, he would have undoubtedly eaten the food of the local Greeks and Turks.
Flatbreads with meats and vegetables were commonplace in the region, and the culture of using Pita as a vessel for other food wasn’t a new one. They may have gone by different names, but these early ‘Sandwiches’ had a long history in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant.
One of the earliest examples dates back to 1st Century Jerusalem when Rabbi Hillel the Elder created a proto-sarnie containing apple, nuts and spices, stuffed between two matzo breads!
On A Roll
Moving through the ages, Medieval cooks across Europe also took to eating their food on bread.
Long before the Internet trend of baked Brie in bread bowls, people were eating their meals served on a stale piece of bread called a ‘Trencher’. This doughy receptacle saved the need for any crockery and absorbed all the juices of the meal. If you were still hungry then you could eat your plate! If not, then the Trencher was thrown away or given to the poor.
As appetizing as the name sounds, this meal was very popular in northern Europe, and over the years evolved into the Dutch ‘Broodje’. This open face Sandwich was common in the Netherlands long before Montagu’s poker night and is still eaten to this day.
What's In A Name?
The popularity of the Sandwich skyrocketed once it gained its current English name, and it soon became the meal of the working masses.
Cheap and easy to prepare, Sandwiches were sold by street sellers outside factories and helped fuel the industrial revolution of the 19th century. This trend was also occurring across the Atlantic as more and more European migrants went looking for work in America.
In the first half of the 20th century, rapid industrial expansion and two world wars meant that the United States needed workers – and workers needed feeding! But as Sandwiches were spreading across American work sites, the Earl started losing his naming rights…
The shipyard workers on Hog Island, Pennsylvania ate their ‘Hoagies’. The submarine builders in Connecticut fed on ‘Sub’s. Even the streetcar operators in Louisiana were given their ‘Po Boys’ when they went on strike in 1929!
