Food That Changed The World: The Sandwich 

This is so cute! I went to IU in the 90s and they didn't serve food on Sunday either. I wonder if that's more widespread? I went hungry many weekends.

University of Illinois, late 80's. Same deal. Dorms didn't serve an evening meal on Sundays. I brought crackers and instant soup and an electric kettle-thing. But eventually everyone started forming groups to order pizza.

That's a great story! It has a simple beauty to it that would be wonderful as part of a novel or film.

Sounds amazing. I'd love to travel back in time for a day or two and experience a day in the life like that. Must've been great to be under that sky, though it's probably really the same as today's sky when you get down to it.

I am from poland too

In Hungary we had "párizsi" with cheap bread buns, butter and salt. Usually compressed flat from being in a bag all day. In school i sometimes flattened it super thin, easier to eat. Extremely cheap, not even cheese but i like it to this day.

​@@KorianHUNparizer

I went fishing with my uncle once and we got an almost stale 15¢ baguette at Walmart and it was way better than we expected.

Those (we'd call them "crisp sandwiches" or "crisp butties") are common in the UK and Ireland. It's a working class food that's about 200 years old and it's still quite popular to put a few chips/crisps in a sandwich with other fillings for the texture.

Chips on bologna or tuna sammiches ... yum!!!

I still do it.

When I was little, we went to a restaurant in Washington DC, and that's how they served the sandwiches. So I always thought it was the fancy way to eat a sandwich.❤

@@Eltener123 prawn cocktail are my preferred crisps for a butty.

The neighbour lady across the street is 82 and we invite her as often as we can for tea because she's very cool. She LOVES cucumber sandwiches. Just cream cheese, cucumber, Dill, maybe some lettuce, and she's happy. I'm so glad I get to enjoy them with her.

Tomato and cucumber sandwiches were a staple of my childhood summers. Just Bread, mayo, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, and a little salt and pepper. Very delicious and refreshing

Oh that sounds so good. Put a bit of beef in there and I might cry

butter as a condiment is underrated lol. that sounds divine!

I grew up on a farm in Alberta Canada…. That sounds exactly like the sandwich’s mom made…

Yes! When I was ten, my neighbor made a Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich for me. I never had sliced turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayo together on bread before, and it was delicious! 🦃🍞😊

Wawa (a grab&go chain sometimes with a gas station in PA and NJ) has a sandwich called the Gobbler that they only serve during November just like this

"The Bobby" (or "Bobbi") for the eldest aunt in the family who used to serve the Thanksgiving leftovers to the kids. WHen they opened their shops they served it, and i the most popular!

Sounds like Ross’s sandwich with the “moist maker”.

Reminds me of the song "Alice's restaurant " 😀

I think the banh mi is one of the perfect sandwiches. It's usually ridiculously cheap, too!

You ate a french dish in vietnam. Pretty cool that they kept the smarter ideas from the old colonial days.

Great story! How Timeless memories are Created! :)

@@interstellarsurfer a French dish that the Vietnamese have made their own.

It's funny but you made me realize that a lot of regional dishes that are well known are sandwiches, and some of the best and most memorable meals I've ever had were sandwiches. There was the first fresh mozzarella and pesto panini I ever had, 20 years ago in upstate New York, then another very memorable balsamic marinated Portobello mushroom sandwich the following day. There were many many memorable hamburgers I've had over the years. A hamburger just isn't the same without the bun. There was the amazing cheesesteak I had in Philadelphia. The best sandwich I ever had, and in fact one of the best meals I ever had was a half shrimp and half roast beef po' boy at Parkway Bakery in New Orleans. And of course I fondly remember stopping at an Asian market for a $5 Bahn Mi in Hartford Connecticut many times when I used to work there about 8-10 years ago.

That's actually where we get the word, like to sop something up! You're family is part of that linguistic tradition evidently :)

Growing up in the 70s a plate staked with slices of store bought white bread was on the table at every dinner.

Guess that's where the saying "need some bread for sopping" cans from.

Yeah, there's an old southern adage I hear older folks say - "That biscuit won't sop no syrup." - meaning "That just won't do."

@@ashleycope1237 I also guess that's when sliced bread become so great as in "so-and-so is the greatest thing since sliced bread." It certainly was a neat and practical way to eat.

interesting. had never heard the word before this video. thanks.

cool. I speak French but I didn't know this word. It's an old word meaning a mix of left over stewed meats

I will find a way to use this word. Thank you for this!

I think I need a tshirt labeling me that LOL

​@@romulus_literally a hapax legomenon in my life. I'm now going to start to see it everywhere 😅

"betcha I can eat that beef without touching it!"

proof that gambling brings great thing, if you ask me we should put slot machines in preschools.

@@thatguywatchingyou9549 Righteous!!!!

i guess the audacity of the invention was the idea that one piece of bread to hold up a meal and keep your fingers clean was enough the second piece of bread was a power move

nice

Thank you for that post. Something so descriptive makes it so that I can picture it in my mind, and it sounds quite lovely. Sort of a ploughman's lunch in sandwich form, and with a pint of cider, good stuff.

Sounds wonderful!

so simple yet I bet the flavors were distinct!

This sounds delicious! I'm going to try it!

Yuck 🤮 sardines no thx

Never heard of an arugula lmao Edit: oh, it's Rocket. Not bad but I adore Oakleaf.

i recommend tasting history with max miller and the channel of adam ragusea as well if you like educational food content

Radish sandwiches are great.

there is also variant with salt or butter only.

Oo, so chlebíček!!!

In Germany we also have the term Kanapee/Canapé for fancy small pieces of bread with toppings specifically in the context of buffets or parties. It's a term taken from French and I expect the Polish word is also related. Originally it was a type of sofa, but got used for the small bites of bread since the toppings are resting on it like a person on a Kanapee sofa.

Still popular in Poland :) Especially when you place slices of juicy vegetable on top - like tomato or cucumber. If you cover it with another piece of bread, it will get soggy fast.

@@FrikInCasualMode and do you also use, hmm, i dont know the name of it, but its a pepper (vegetable) but not fresh, ita more like... Pickled? Yum!

I was in the Pittsburgh area recently and planned on stopping at Primanti Bros. but my trip was changed because of the airlines debacle last month. I ended up driving 18 hours to get there and had to cut my stay short to drive home. I planned on a three day stay but had to cut it short to two days.

@@Reubenhubertoriginally it was sliced potato’s way back when. Now it’s fry’s. Too bad you missed out.

Yinzer here! Can confirm that the 100 year old grill adds something special.

A friend of mine's grandfather says he knew the original Primanti guy who came up with sandwich and, according to him, the original was served with marinated bell peppers instead of cole slaw because he could get peppers for free when the produce sellers were about to throw them out. I dunno if that's true or not, but my friend's grandfather did grow up in the Strip District/Lawrenceville area at about the time Primanti was starting out.

@@johnfitzgerald9245 could be! I just go on what I hear in that area. My grandma made sandwiches with marinated bell peppers she made herself. Sooo 🤔 possible

Just by itself it sounds like it could make an exceptional grilled cheese sandwich.

Try pickles on a grilled cheese if you haven't yet. Kosher style cut in coins sorta thin, put them between two cheeses and dip the whole thing in tomato soup as you eat. For extra flavor use tomato basil soup instead.

@@Slay_No_More That sounds very good. Thanks for the tip

@@StrandedLifeform my mom made it for me growing up. It's a weird good combo.

I've never believed that the Earl of Sandwich was the first to eat meat between two slices of bread. Of course it was done before and elsewhere. I remember in Great Expectations, Pip is given "meat and bread" after a session visiting with Miss Haversham and her ward. The 'meat and bread' were in a kind of basket. Just makes sense Pip would have tried wrapping the bread around the meat. People have been doing this for thousands of years. European bread doesn't always wrap quite as well as flat breads so you surround the filling with slices. Common sense.

@@charlottekey8856 great expectations was published about 70 years after the earl of sandwich died

I agree - the item was ancient. He made it fashionable.

If you search Google Books for books published between 1600 and 1700, the bilingual dictionaries explain "luncheon" is variously a chunk of breads and/or meats, a slice cut off a piece, cutting things into smaller pieces. So it was cut up bread and meat. What the Earl did was give it social cachet.

The idea of combining for example cheese and sausages with bread, all stuff around for several thousand years occured to Humanity a bit before the 17th century for sure. Just nobody made enough PR for it like the good Earl did.

If you give a mouse a gallimaufry...

Reminds me of The Gallimaufry, a huge alien space station of unknown origin with universe shattering secrets in Buck Godot Zap Gun for Hire .

I just looked up the definition because I saw the comment just as he said the line 😂

YUM!

One of my favorites. I think the authentic Cubano has no salami, as it was not very common in Cuba where it originated. I have had one with and without salami, and I have to say I prefer without, as I feel the salami flavor takes too much away from the roast pork

Definitely dig the Cuban.

I can buy one anytime here but they are easy to make at home. One three foot long loaf of Cuban bread can make at least six sandwiches.

Introduced them to Western PA

Presliced bread is a 20rh century thing. Sliced bread is the Greatest thing since the sandwich!

noice

Sliced bread is overrated, I'd much rather have a normal bar of bread

judaism has sandwiches (pardon the pun) baked into the liturgy of passover and has been for about two millennia, it’s always fascinating to me when the idea of a sandwich is credited to a rich person with a gambling addiction. perhaps he popularized it in the west among english speakers, but surely people had been making sandwiches for a long long time

@@josephd183Shut up

What's your favorite drink? ??????? Dying in anticipation.....

@@jamesmanolakis2420 - I'm sorry, was there a limit on how many sandwiches one may like?

@@peterlarsen7779 I stand with you Peter, I liked hearing about your sandwiches

That does cover it for me!😅

I'd like to add a favorite of my own. A Monte Cristo sandwich; A ham, Cheddar cheese and turkey melt, served between two slices of French toast, accompanied by raspberry jam and a serving of French fries. Best breakfast/brunch ever!

Try Sandwiches of History. Short vids with a new sandwich recipe every day. Always interesting. :)

@@staceyn2541 Subscribed. thanks for mentioning this channel.

"Po BOY" sandwiches are made with OYSTERS, if made with SHRIMP, they're "Po GIRL" sandwiches!! Either way, now I want one!!!

The best sandwiches on Earth!

@@jasonrodgers9063 Poboys are sort of catch-all for a lot of sandwiches in Louisiana. As long as it's in some french bread, it counts. Shrimp, fish, oysters, turkey, ham, whatever.

Ooh that sounds divine

The person who told Americans the butter wasn't necessary must be held accountable.

But only because the crumbs would go flying everywhere, not for flavor

The original PB&J cerca 1920 was three slices of bread with peanut butter on between the first two and jelly between the second - no crust and as a side.

Back then ovens used fire and wood or coal. And the crust would probably be hard and partly burned aswell.

To be fair it was for rich people and the presentation. No commoner is wasting bread in such a manner! Lmao

Dagwood also ate mashed potato sandwiches.

@@TooLooze this makes me think of Japanese fried noodles sandwich. carb on carb!

Ooo. Dagwoods. Remember making those as a kid!!!

I love this but with mayo instead of butter. Yummy!

Now THAT is a really interesting idea, and makes perfect sense. If so it would be an early example of how advancing technology changed our diets.

People had been baking bread for millennia before the sandwich showed up. You don't need to understand microbiology to make good bread. Soaking bread in liquid is for using old bread that has gone stale.

Yeah ... sourdough bread is just fine to make a sandwich. The main novelty was that noone in polite circles would have eaten with their fingers before the Earl of Sandwich...

Wrong hypothesis

I say, a “sandwich” - this may well be the most odd foodstuff I have ever seen!

I adore pineapple and put it on all my salads and sandwiches and burgers but that just doesn't sound pleasant to me. Not a mayo fan I guess.

Ahh the Wigan Kebab. What a beautiful thing.

@@jebdunkins6796 Spot on. Whatever genius thought of that, deserves a pint. (Or several) 👍👍👍

I do that.

you know about the chip butty?

spag sauce in a puffpasty pie maker is good too

@@buglepong I put chips on my bologna sandwiches, is that close enough?

Japanese yakisoba bread

Lorne, Black Pudding in a morning roll, sauce of your preference, which for me is HP or Daddies.

Plastic cheese is almost as bad as using Richmond sausages as a sandwich filling 🤢

Possibly the best sausage is the Scottish square sausage, hot and beautifully spiced in a buttie served with a hot cup of tea

I bet I could dig a Lorne sausage sandwich. Would have to find the right spice though. The site I found suggested the spice profile is nutmeg and coriander - might be a good fit for this channel ;).

@@kavasir7042 - if you're using the wrapped individual slices you're supposed to take the wrappers off before you eat it.

Lol genius

You're toying with forces beyond your ken!

The hot dog is a german invention. The "frankfurter" invented in the 1600s in Germany. It's funny how Americans assume so many things are "american".

The Taco is a Tuesday food.

I'm sure he could. But why bother with a network when he can keep 100% creative control with RU-vid. No need to get television execs involved in a good thing.

I always wondered why he isn't on PBS.

For sure, why have them control your life​@@sclarsen86

Also the Nordic smörrebröd / smørrebrød / smörgås / voileipä (= butter bread) becomes an "open-faced sandwich" in the eyes of an American. One slice of bread, butter, toppings like meat or sausage, fish, cheese, etc.

Similar to the English idea of the Ploughman's Lunch. Bread is good with almost anything

It’s so interesting to learn about foods and traditions. If we concentrated on this and celebrated it, maybe there would be more peace.

As an American, I would be sooooo tempted to just sandwichize the topped bread. It only needs one more sliiiice. It could be so portable!

Same concepts in the netherlands, tho i like the english 'crisp sando'

But would that also count as a sandwich? Are burgers a subset of sandwiches? (I know this is an age old question but I've never got the answer) I prefer bread sliced in half to slices from a loaf. A subway sandwich is a sandwich. A hotdog is a sausage sandwich? How about a filled pita pocket? It's been sliced open, though not in two, but hotdog bun isn't in two either...

​@@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407The hamburger is absolutely a sandwich; like I get that there's debate on hot dogs but a burger could not be more clearly a sandwich

​@@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407bruh it's two pieces of bread with meat in the middle. Of course it's a sandwich, it's just a sub-set of sandwiches with questionable definition what makes it a burger.

The Butter is put on the bread, to prevent the contents from soaking into the bread and making it soggy. Cucumbers may not seem that wet, until they are cut and placed on a piece of sponge, we call bread. The Butter on the bread, is a trick all restaurants use for 'formal tea' parties, or other events where bread is the carrier for 'wet' foods. Fast food will put the Cheese on the bread, for the very same reason: act as a moisture barrier to the rest of the indgredients and the bread.

@@Objective-Observer mayo is a moisture barrier as well. Not as occlusion as butter though.

@@annettefournier9655 Mayo has eggs and lemon juice to add to that moisture content, despite the oil in the emulsion. That's why high end bakers and caterers use butter, well, that also adds to the flavor. For home cooks, the mayo may be enough, since the sammies are served immediately. If you must store those sammies over night, butter the bread.

Ham and cheese is best with butter on the bread, not mayo.

Now I have to do this, thank you for contributing to my health issues

That sounds pretty good!

I salute you

Burger using two grilled cheese sandwiches as buns.

@@patrickrandolph6345 yw

And only witches ate them! The t was lost in translation.

@@Tomichika They're a Bri'ish invention so that's natural.

Are you from the south? A sandwich without mayo here is like a person without a soul. Hell, sometimes we make sandwiches with nothing BUT mayo. Mayonnaise sandwich. I weep for people who have never eaten Bama Mayonnaise.

@@cocobutter3175 lol True

I especially don't understand people who only put mayo on one slice of bread. This is why I loathe Subway. You say you make sandwiches, but you fail at basic sandwich making 101. Mayo goes on the BREAD NOT THE TOPPINGS, YOU MORONS. I may have strong feelings about this issue.

I saw a documentary claiming brain sandwiches were huge in Indiana, like the most popular sandwich. Then it said they only seem to be served in one bar now, near Evansville. I dunno where they got the info that decided it was popular throughout Indiana, because I haven't seen any evidence of that at all. My family is from Seymour/Columbus/Bloomington area and in a family poll, no one could remember ever eating them or seeing them sold. My country granny sometimes made pig brains with eggs, but never breaded as a sandwich. Sorry, just one of those weird things that bugs and confuses me. Townsends is in Forrt Wayne, I wonder what their research team could uncover.

Pig brains with eggs were a thing in the south. Not so much noe. But tomato slices and mayo on white bread is still popular.

​@@sadjaxxGrilled tomato slices on toast is a pretty popular breakfast item in Australia usually with a wee bit of salt and pepper. Not really my thing but reasonably popular.

By that definition a sub isn't a sandwich.

@@SodaDjinn It isn't.

@@SodaDjinn If the sub's bread isn't sliced into 2 separate pieces, then it would not be a sandwich (at least by the original definition).

Is a burger a sandwich? Does the bun qualify since it is a piece of bread sliced into two separate pieces?

@@jagermeifster I'd say a burger is a sandwich. Others might disagree of course, lol!

I have to make one of each! Dang!

Tacos of the gods

@@michaelmarshall8041 Graham Hancock Crackers

@@michaelmarshall8041 Taco Truck Vimana !!

Gobekli Tepe was basically the Subway of ancient times.

@@craigmitchell4071 the sacred words "eat fresh" are inscribed upon pillar 18, in line with the constellation Jared

@xltwilightragelx the preferred food group of the enlightened individual

Lolz because he doesn't want to get tied up in an epic debate

Yes it is we just don't call it a hot dog sandwich. Very much in the same way we don't call a burger a burger sandwich. It's one of those things.

Still Life #7 by Pieter Claesz

why do you care?

​@@OhioDan why do you know?

@@beefsupreme67 Why are you trolling?

@@OhioDan I'm not trolling how tf you just know that

it's a long s, an old letter that isn't used anymore. it looks similar to an f but technically different

Trenchers weren't a sandwich. They were more of a plate.

Could you put in some sources for your claims please? Not that I dont believe you, but our man here is basing what he says on cookbook etc. So it would be fair to provide a source too.

Pretty much any book on life in medieval Europe is going to identify trenches or manchets as a single round piece of bread used as a plate to sop up juices that were frequently given to the poor after a feast.

This is one of those things that I find extremely bizarre, because it’s such a simple, practical thing, but apparently in Europe at least, it wasn’t a thing until much later. But loads of people were making versions for centuries where bread or a pita wasn’t necessarily cut all the way through but stuffed with meat and vegetables and other stuff. I think the Chinese pork ones (roujiamo, or something like that?) date back over two thousand years. And we would consider that a sandwich today

I'm sure people had the idea plenty of times. But this was the first time it caught on, on a large scale and became a popular staple food of a large population.

Hardly the same thing as loaf bread though.