Sandwiches Are Bound To Rule The World

Do you know why we love sandwiches? We love them because they are so damn easy to make. You dont have to be five star chef to put together a couple of pieces of bread and fill the insides of it to your heart’s content with whatever you desire. It is simple, easy and healthier than many other food options. From simple ingredients like cheese, tomato and lettuce to corned beef and goat cheese, you can design it and layer it with a ton of ingredients, provided the flavors go well together.

Another great thing about sandwiches is the fact that they are so flexible. You can make a simple grilled cheese with white bread or you can make it with sourdough bread or Italian bread. The variations you can come up with are nearly endless, with each variation providing a completely different flavor, texture and taste.

History

The earliest recorded reference of a sandwich is sometime between 70 B.C. and 70 A.D. a Jewish teacher called Rabbi Hillel created a Passover custom of eating haroseth(chopped nuts and apples) and mohror (bitter herbs) between two pieces of matzo (unleavened bread). The actual term “sandwich” came about approximately 200 years ago and supposedly invented by Sir John Montague, The Fourth Earl of Sandwich (No, I’m not kidding). He popularized the concept of eating meats and cheeses between slices of bread.

Types Of Sandwiches

Let’s break down the crazy world of sandwiches, shall we? How do you classify a sandwich? Well, the two common classifications of a sandwich are hot and cold sandwiches. Simple enough? You can clearly get an idea of what constitutes a hot sandwich or a cold sandwich just by looking at them but let’s take it a one step further.

Hot Sandwiches

1. Closed Sandwiches – These are your default hot sandwiches such as burgers, hot dogs, wraps and burritos. You know, two slices of bread or a tortilla/chappathi filled with hot fillings like beef, chicken, eggs and the like. These sandwiches also include cold fillings like slices of tomatoes and lettuce but the body of a closed hot sandwich primarily includes food items that are fried or grilled.

2. Grilled Sandwiches – These sandwiches are primarily put together by buttering up the bread on the outside with fillings placed inside and browning the bread by placing it on a frying pan or a grill. A simple grilled cheese sandwich dipped in tomato soup or a nice hot panini fresh off the grill, nothing better than that.

3. Deep-fried Sandwiches – The heart attack of the sandwich family. These things are closed sandwiches but they are dipped in egg batter and breadcrumbs and deep fried which gives you that terrific crust formation on top of the bread. The Monte Cristo sandwich is a good example for a deep fried sandwich.

Cold sandwiches

1. Basic cold sandwiches – These sandwiches are similar to the hot sandwiches but it contains mainly cold fillings. Raw vegetables and pre-cooked meat are usually used as the filling for these types of sandwiches. Tuna salad sandwich is a pretty good example for a closed cold sandwich.

2. Multidecker sandwiches – The clue is in the name. It’s a multi layered sandwich with 3 or more slices of bread and multiple fillings. The club sandwich with layers of turkey, bacon, lettuce and tomato is the perfect example for a multidecker sandwich.

So, those are your categories and sub categories of the sandwich family. It is a very difficult process to categorize sandwiches as they include whatever you can get your hands on. You can pretty much put anything between two slices of bread and call it a sandwich. As we said, sandwiches are the most flexible dish in the food universe.

There you have it, some history and categories of sandwiches. Sandwiches are healthy, nutritious and filling if you include the right ingredients. Sandwiches are the chameleons of the food universe and you know what they say, a good sandwich is only a couple of minutes away.