According to legend sometime in 1762 John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich was engaged at a public gaming table and had not eaten in nearly 24 hours. The earl instructed his cook to put some meat between some bread and give it to him. The cook toasted the bread and then put some slices of cold beef between the bread slices and added some lettuce and mustard. The earl was quite taken with the concoction because it allowed him to continue his card game and leave a free hand while he ate.
Of course humans had been eating bread, meat, vegetables, and condiments put together for centuries as a quick meal so it really wasn’t anything new, but eventually the name would stick. The first real written mention of the sandwich comes from the journal of author and MP Edward Gibbon who gave Sandwich credit for the creation and added that others started ordering” that thing that Sandwich eats.” In 1793 a cookbook was published that contained a recipe for a “sandwich.”
By the 1830s, street vendors and lunch carts were selling sandwiches. The first mention of sandwiches in America came in the early 1840s when some restaurants and taverns started mentioning sandwiches as part of their cuisine in newspaper advertisements. The meats were generally beef or ham, but mutton and chicken sandwiches were sold as well. In the 1850s vendors at train and stage coach stations were peddling sandwiches as a food to consume on the run. Indeed, the sandwich had become a very popular “road’ food.
In 1889, the Union Club of New York City made the first “Club Sandwich.” It consisted of toasted whole wheat bread, turkey and bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise served hot. Within 10 years, variations of the Club Sandwich were being served all over the world.
In the United States it was the automobile that accelerated the growth of the sandwich. Before World War I roadside drive-ins started selling barbecue sandwiches to hungry drivers particularly in the south. In the 1920s, bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches became a staple of truck stops and diners along American highways.
After World War II the hamburger exploded on the scene as the great American sandwich. It, too, became a popular road travel food. So there you have it. The sandwich is the single most consumed food item in the world. All because an 18th century British nobleman didn’t want to stop his card game to get something to eat. Now, of course, the sandwich comes in handy when we’re trying to drive and eat at the same time.