24 Feb Where did the humble sandwich come from?
If popular historical culture is to be believed the Sandwich was conceptualised and invented by the Earl of Sandwich in the eighteen hundreds. The Earl was a busy man and he was enjoying a game of cards with friends. Feeling a little bit peckish the Earl decided he wanted something to eat. However, he was in no mood to leave the table, perhaps he had a Full house that he was building but whatever the reason he summoned his servant and requested pieces of bread with a slice of cold meat stuck between them. Not exactly the healthiest of dishes and nowadays you are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing your lunch – whether you are looking for a small sandwich or salad or perhaps a larger meal from a restaurant that serves the Best pizza in dublin.
The Earl though had gone for the bread and meat combo and his playing companions realised that this was a brilliant idea, and all started shouting they wanted the “same as Sandwich”. Off the poor old servants went to start cutting up the bread and slicing the joints. It must have been one intense game of cards for them not to simply just put the cards all face down and go for some supper. Anyway, the name for the Sandwich stuck and it’s a common conception that the human race had managed to go eons of time without someone not realising that it might be a great way to carry meat and cheese around with them by sticking them in between bread. But cometh the man cometh the rich bloke and the sandwich had its name.
Expect here’s the thing it wasn’t an original idea. It seems that people had since Iron age times and figured out that when they made bread it might be an idea to have something tasty other than churned cow’s milk on it. There is recipe and evidence that unleavened bread with a meat or vegetable filling and been around since biblical times and the whole story neatly ignores the Kebab and the Pitta bread which easily update it. Now you could argue that they are not strictly sandwiches but they are certainly the forerunners. This is a very British conception as usual that we pretty much invented something regardless of whether it had already been developed. We don’t limit ourselves to just meat go in the sandwich either.
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