Credit for the invention of the sandwich is often given to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat who would eat meat and cheese twixt bread while he played cribbage — it was just so much neater and more elegant than eating the meat with his bare hands.
But a careful study of culinary history (which is never very reliable) indicates that the notion of eating meat and bread predates the 4th Earl by several centuries. Indeed, the first proto-sandwiches probably hew all the way back to the 1st century BC, to the small “sandwiches” of matzoh and bitter herbs eaten at Passover.
Which brings up the interesting question of what sandwiches were called before they were called “sandwiches.” According to a fascinating study called “Bread and Meat for God’s Sake,” they were called, well, “bread and meat” or “bread and cheese.” Which doesn’t sound nearly as good as “sandwich.” Or “hero,” “hoagie,” “submarine,” “hamburger,” “muffaletta”…or any […]
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