50 Fun Facts About Sandwiches

Which card game was Lord Sandwich reportedly playing when he called for beef between two pieces of toast?

The appeal was practical: he could keep gambling without a fork and without greasing his cards.

The familiar Lord Sandwich gambling anecdote first appeared in a 1770 travel book by which French writer?

His impressions of London came from a single year spent there in 1765, and the tale reached English readers in translation in 1772.

Honoring the 4th Earl of Sandwich, Captain James Cook named which islands the 'Sandwich Islands' in 1778?

Cook also named the South Sandwich Islands in the Atlantic and Montague Island off Alaska for his patron.

The sage Hillel the Elder is said to have wrapped Paschal lamb and bitter herbs in what?

The Passover custom is often cited as the earliest recorded ancestor of the modern wrap.

In 2024 a court in which US state ruled that tacos and burritos are 'Mexican-style sandwiches'?

The judge added that the same logic would cover Greek gyros, Indian naan wraps and Vietnamese bánh mì.

The USDA's definition of a closed sandwich requires at least what share of cooked meat?

An open sandwich must clear a higher bar of at least half cooked meat.

The earliest known reference to a club sandwich appeared in an 1889 issue of which New York newspaper?

A rival story credits the Saratoga Club after Richard Canfield turned it into a casino in 1894.

The Omaha origin story of the Reuben places its creation at a weekly poker game held where?

Grocer Reuben Kulakofsky asked for corned beef and sauerkraut, and the owner's son added the cheese and dressing.

Which cheese belongs on a classic Reuben?

Because it stacks meat and dairy, the deli icon is not kosher under traditional dietary law.

Pat and Harry Olivieri, credited with inventing the Philly cheesesteak, originally ran what kind of stand?

One day they tried chopped beef with grilled onions instead, and Pat's King of Steaks still operates today.

American cheese was first added to the cheesesteak in 1951 by a manager known by what nickname?

Joe Lorenza made the change at the Ridge Avenue location, two decades after the sandwich was born.

Which cheese is 'overwhelmingly the favorite' at Pat's King of Steaks, outselling American ten to one?

Across the street at Geno's, owner Joey Vento always pushed provolone as 'the real cheese'.

The po' boy was named for free sandwiches given to 1929 strikers from which industry?

Bennie Martin recalled greeting each striker at the counter as 'another poor boy'.

A po' boy ordered 'dressed' comes with shredded lettuce, tomato, pickles and what?

Fillings run from fried shrimp and oysters to alligator, boudin and rabbit.

The muffuletta was created in 1906 at Central Grocery on Decatur Street in which city?

Sicilian immigrant Salvatore Lupo ran the deli, and the loaf is still sold by the quarter, half and whole.

In 2012 which Florida city's council named the 'Historic Cuban Sandwich' its official signature sandwich?

The vote was a shot in a long friendly rivalry with South Florida over who owns the sandwich.

Which meat is traditionally layered into a Tampa-style Cuban sandwich but left out of the Miami version?

The addition reflects the Italian immigrants who worked alongside Cubans in Ybor City's cigar factories.

Bánh mì bread became fluffier when Vietnamese bakers stretched scarce wheat with which cheap ingredient?

The swap started as a workaround for disrupted wheat imports and became part of the bread's character.

What is France's grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich called when topped with a fried or poached egg?

The base version dates back to at least 1891, when a Paris sporting review mentioned it.

The Monte Cristo took off after the Blue Bayou Restaurant at which theme park began serving it?

The first documented 'Monte Cristo Sandwich' appeared in a US restaurant trade publication in 1923.

In which year did Julia Davis Chandler publish the first known peanut butter and jelly sandwich recipe?

The article ran when peanut butter was still considered a delicacy rather than a pantry staple.

Which company patented the sealed crustless sandwich in 1999 and launched Uncrustables the next year?

The same company had already put peanut butter and jelly in one jar as Goober Grape in 1968.

The towering Dagwood sandwich is named after a character from which comic strip?

Chic Young began drawing the enormous stacks in 1936, and a Toledo restaurant tried to franchise the idea in 1951.

One theory traces the sloppy joe to 'loose meat sandwiches' sold in the 1930s where in Iowa?

Heinz's test-kitchen research credited a cook named Joe with the saucy ground-beef original.

Philippe the Original and Cole's, rival claimants to the French dip, are both restaurants in which city?

Both opened in 1908, and one legend says the first roll was dropped into meat drippings by accident.

Philadelphia's word 'hoagie' is linked to Italian-American workers at which World War I-era shipyard?

Former mayor Ed Rendell later declared the hoagie the city's official sandwich.

What is the prevailing New York City term for a submarine sandwich?

The plural is usually written 'heros', and the popular story crediting a 1930s food columnist has no good evidence behind it.

In which city is a sub uniquely known as a 'spukie'?

Nearby Westchester County calls the same sandwich a 'wedge', and Norristown, Pennsylvania says 'zep'.

Subway opened in Bridgeport in 1965 under what original name?

It became Subway in 1968 and now runs more than 37,000 locations worldwide.

The Fool's Gold Loaf, which Elvis once flew from Graceland to eat, came from which city?

He and his friends bought 22 loaves, ate them with Perrier and champagne, and flew home the same night.

Sheffield United's greasy chip butty chant is sung to the tune of which 1970s folk ballad?

The chant claims the chip butty as a Yorkshire invention.

Which Iowa inventor built the first single-loaf bread-slicing machine?

By 1933 about 80% of American loaves were pre-sliced, giving English the phrase 'greatest thing since sliced bread'.

The first pre-sliced loaves went on sale on July 7, 1928, at a bakery in which Missouri town?

The town still bills itself as the home of sliced bread.

What does the Danish word 'smørrebrød' literally mean?

The open-faced sandwich is built on dense dark rye and usually eaten with a knife and fork.

Italy's crustless tramezzino sandwich was devised in 1925 at Caffè Mulassano in which city?

It was created as an Italian answer to the English tea sandwich.

Which Italian writer coined the word 'tramezzino' to replace the English word 'sandwich'?

The coinage builds on 'tramezzo', meaning 'in-between', with a diminutive ending.

Guadalajara's torta ahogada takes its name from being what?

Elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world 'torta' usually means a cake, but in Mexico it is a sandwich on a bolillo or telera roll.

Kadir Nurman helped establish the doner kebab sandwich as fast food in 1972 at Zoo Station in which city?

By 2010 Germans were buying €2.5 billion worth of doner a year.

In Greece and Cyprus, authentic gyros is traditionally made from which meat?

The Greek name is a direct translation of the Turkish 'döner', both meaning 'turn'.

Falafel is a deep-fried fritter that most likely originated in which country?

It is often stuffed into pita with pickles and salad and drizzled with tahini sauce.

Vegemite was developed in Melbourne in 1922 by which food chemist?

The name was picked in a £50 competition by the company founder's daughter, Sheilah.

A fluffernutter sandwich pairs peanut butter with what?

Merriam-Webster finally added the word to its dictionary in 2021.

Lawmakers in which state twice failed to make the fluffernutter the official state sandwich?

Marshmallow Fluff has been made there since Archibald Query first whipped it up in Somerville in 1917.

The lobster roll is commonly credited to have been invented in Milford, in which state?

Perry's restaurant is said to have served it hot as early as 1929; the cold version came later up the coast.

Katz's Delicatessen, famed for its pastrami on rye, was founded in which year?

It moves about 15,000 pounds of pastrami a week from its Houston Street corner on the Lower East Side.

Katz's wartime slogan urged customers to 'Send a salami to your boy in the' what?

Rose Tarowsky coined it for her son, a bomber pilot in the South Pacific; Tom Lehrer later worked it into a song.

Which 1989 film's famous deli scene, capped by 'I'll have what she's having', was shot at Katz's?

The table Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal sat at is marked with a sign; the pair reprised the scene in a 2025 Super Bowl ad.

On which date is National Sandwich Day observed in the United States?

April 12 belongs to grilled cheese and May 5 to the hoagie.

More than three million of which sandwich are sold in France every day?

Only the hamburger outsells the buttered ham baguette in France.

The chivito, a steak sandwich with ham, cheese and egg, is which country's national dish?

Legend says a Punta del Este restaurateur invented it in 1946 when he had no kid goat for a customer and used beef instead.