I Can’t Sleep - Sandwich History | Gentle Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

Unwind with this calm bedtime reading designed to ease insomnia and bring restful sleep. Tonight’s episode explores the fascinating history and varieties of the humble sandwich, offering both comfort and gentle learning as you drift into slumber. You’ll discover how this simple yet versatile food became a worldwide staple, all while listening to Benjamin’s steady, soothing voice. There’s no whispering, no hypnosis—just peaceful, fact-filled narration to calm stress, quiet anxiety, and help you relax. Press play, settle in, and let your mind drift into rest. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Sandwich, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Sandwich. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox Media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. And today's episode is about sandwiches. A sandwich is a dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces and vegetables, used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread.

Or more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a portable, convenient food in the Western world, and over time it has become prevalent worldwide. There has been social media debate over the precise definition of sandwich, specifically whether a hot dog or open sandwich can be categorized as such. Other items like hamburgers and burritos were also considered. In the United States, the Department of Agriculture, USDA, and the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, are the responsible agencies for protecting the definition of sandwich. The USDA uses the definition, at least 35% cooked meat and no more than 50% bread for closed sandwiches,

and at least 50% cooked meat for open sandwiches. However, the same USDA manual determines that burritos and fajitas are sandwich-like, and Frankfurters are sandwich-type, while stromboli is explicitly excluded. In Britain, the British Sandwich Association defines a sandwich as any form of bread with a filling, generally assembled cold. A definition which includes wraps and bagels, but potentially excludes dishes assembled and served hot, such as burgers. Sandwiches are a popular type of lunch food, taken to work, school, or picnics to be eaten as part of a packed lunch.

The bread is frequently coated with condiments, such as mayonnaise or mustard, to enhance its flavor and texture, but may be served plain, dry. As well as being homemade, sandwiches are also widely sold in various retail outlets and can be served hot or cold. Although savory sandwiches, such as deli meat sandwiches, are in the majority, sweet sandwiches such as jam sandwiches and fluffer nutters, form their own category. A sandwich is named after the inventor of a certain roast beef sandwich in 18th century England, John Montague, fourth Earl of sandwich. The Wall Street Journal has described it as Britain's biggest contribution to gastronomy.

The use of some kind of bread or bread-like substance to lie under some other food, or to scoop it up and enclose or wrap it, is found in many cultures historically. before being known as a sandwich this food combination seems to have been known as bread and meat or bread and cheese these two phrases are found throughout english drama from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the first century b c the jewish sage hillel the elder is said to have wrapped meat from the pascal lamb and bitter herbs in a soft matzah flat unleavened bread during passover in the manner of a modern wrap made with flatbread. Flatbreads of only slightly varying kinds have long been used to scoop or wrap small amounts of food en route from platter to mouth throughout Western Asia and North Africa. From the cuisines of Morocco to Ethiopia to India, bread is usually baked in flat rounds, contrasting with a European loaf tradition. During the Middle Ages in Europe, six last

of coarse and usually stale bread, called trenchers, were used as plates. After a meal, the food-soaked trencher was fed to a dog, or to beggars at the tables of the wealthy, and eaten by diners in more modest circumstances. The immediate culinary precursor with a direct connection to the English sandwich was to be found in the Netherlands of the 17th century, where the naturalist John Ray observed that in the taverns beef hung from the rafters, which they cut into thin slices and eat with bread and butter, laying the slices upon the butter.

Explanatory specifications that reveal the Dutch belecht de broja, open-faced sandwich, was as yet unfamiliar in England. The word sandwich appears, referring to a certain roast beef sandwich, in England. Initially perceived as food that men shared while gaming and drinking at night, the sandwich slowly began appearing in polite society as a late-night meal among the aristocracy. The sandwich is named after John Montague, fourth Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat. It is commonly said that Lord Sandwich, during long sessions of cribbage and other card games at public gambling houses, would order his valet to bring him roast beef between two pieces of toasted bread.

He was fond of this form of food, because it allowed him to continue gambling while eating, without a need for a fork, and without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands. The dish then grew in popularity in London, and sandwiches name became associated with it. The rumor in its familiar form appeared in Pierre Jean-Grolet's Laundre, Nosteil 1770, translated as a tour to London in 1772. Grole's impressions have been formed during a year in London in 1765. An alternative is provided by Sandwich's biographer, Nicholas A.M. Roger, who suggests sandwiches,

commitments to the Royal Navy, politics and the arts, means the first sandwich was more likely to have been consumed at his desk. The sandwiches' popularity in Spain and England increased dramatically during the 19th century when the rise of industrial society and the working classes made fast, portable, and inexpensive meals essential. In London, for example, at least 70 street vendors were selling ham sandwiches by 1850. During that decade, sandwich bars also became an important form of eating establishments in Western Holland, typically serving liver and salt beef sandwiches. In the United States, the sandwich was first promoted as an elaborate meal at supper. By the early 20th century, as bread became a staple food of the American diet, the sandwich became

the same kind of popular quick meal as was already widespread in the Mediterranean. In the U.S., a court in Boston ruled in 2006 that a sandwich includes at least two slices of bread, and under this definition, this court finds that the term sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos, and gazadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla, and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans. The issue stemmed from the question of whether a restaurant that sold burritos could move into a shopping center where another restaurant had a no-compete clause in its lease, prohibiting other sandwich shops. Also in the U.S., a court in Indiana ruled in 2024

that tacos and britos are sandwiches, specifically that the court agrees with kintana that tacos and burritos are Mexican-style sandwiches. The court further ruled that such a definition of sandwich would also apply to a restaurant that serves made-to-order Greek euros, Indian non-wrabs, or Vietnamese Bonn-Me. The U.S. state of New York has a definition of sandwich that explicitly includes burritos, euros, hot dogs and wraps and pita sandwiches. In Spain was a word sandwich is borrowed from the English language. It refers to a food item made with English sandwich bread.

It is otherwise known as a bocadillo. Similar usage applies in other Spanish-speaking cultures, such as Mexico, where the word torta is also used for a popular variety of roll-type sandwiches. In Britain, in Australia, the term sandwich is more narrowly defined than in the U.S. It usually refers to an item that uses sliced bread from a loaf. An item with similar fillings, but using an entire bread roll cut horizontally in half, is generally referred to as a roll, or with certain hot fillings, a burger. However, in Australia, hot sliced, not ground beef, between two slices of toastings of toast.

bread is referred to as a steak sandwich. The sliced loaf bread distinguishes the steak sandwich from a burger. The verb to sandwich has the meaning to position anything between two other things of a different character, or to place different elements alternately, and the noun sandwich has related meanings derived from this more general definition. For example, an ice cream sandwich consists of a a layer of ice cream between two layers of cake or biscuit. Similarly, Oreos and custard creams are described as sandwich biscuits or sandwich cookies because it consists of a soft filling between

the baked layers. In corporate finance, Dutch sandwich and double Irish was a Dutch sandwich referred to schemes for tax evasion. The word butty originally referred to a buttered slice of bread is common in some northern and southern parts of England and Wales as a slang synonym for sandwich, particularly to refer to certain kinds of sandwiches, including the chip buddy, bacon buddy, or sausage buddy. Sarni is a similar colloquialism. Likewise, the word Senga is used for sandwich in Australian slang. The colloquial Scottish word piece may refer either to a sandwich or to a light meal, especially one that includes a sandwich. For example, the phrase Gili piece refers to a jam sandwich.

The colloquial form samage, alternatively samage, is used in the southeastern United States. In Japanese, Sando or Sandoichi is used. Sandwiches have been widely. sold in cafes, railway stations, pubs, and diners, since the invention of sliced bread in the 1920s. Sandwiches kept unwrapped, drying up, and edges curling until they were sold, were widely found in Britain until the 1970s. Cafes and buffets in railway stations and on trains were notorious, and the term British rail sandwich was often used satirically. In 1979, the British store chain Marks and Spencer introduced a small range of chilled pre-made sandwiches, sold in wedge-shaped boxes, sealed to keep them fresh.

As they proved popular, a small experiment involving five stores rapidly grew to cover more than 100 stores. Within a year, the store was looking for ways to manufacture sandwiches at an industrial scale. By the end of the decade, the British sandwich industry had become worth 1 billion pounds. In 2017, the British sandwich industry made and sold 8 billion pounds worth of sandwiches. Now let's learn about different types of sandwiches. The Submarine Sandwich This is commonly known as a sub. It's a type of American cold or hot sandwich made from a submarine roll,

an elongated bread roll that is split lengthwise and filled with meats, cheeses, vegetables, and condiments. Although submarine or just sub is the general term for both the bread roll and sandwiches made with it in both the U.S. and other English-speaking nations. There are many local nicknames, especially in the northeastern United States, such as Hogi, Philadelphia metropolitan area, and Western Pennsylvania English. Hero, New York City English. Maine Italian. Maine English. Grinda, New England English.

Fulton County, New York. Wedge, Westchester, New York. Or Spunky, Boston English. A party sub is a particularly long submarine sandwich, usually cut into pieces and serve to guests at parties. This sandwich type originated in several different Italian-American communities in the Northeastern United States, from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. The popularity of the Italian-American sandwich grew from its origins in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware,

Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island to other parts of the United States. This was often due to local pizzerias beginning to add the sub to their menus. Pizzerias may have been among the first Italian-American eateries, but even at the turn of the 20th century, distinctions were clear-cut as to what constituted a true restaurante. To be merely a pizza maker was to be the bottom of the culinary and social scale. So many pizzeria owners began offering other dishes. including the hero sandwich, also depending on the region of the United States, called a wedge, a hoagie, a sub, or a grinder, made on an Italian loaf of bread with lots of salami, cheese, and

peppers. John Mariani, America Eats Out, page 66. As the sandwiches popularity grew, small restaurants called Hogi Shops or Sub-Shops, which specialized in offering the sandwich began to open all over the United States. There are now many chain restaurants that specialize in subs across the U.S. The sandwich is also often available at supermarkets called delis and convenience stores. They include Wawa, which annually runs a sub-promotional event during the summer called Hogi Fest and Publix, whose sandwiches are often referred to as pub-subs.

In a 1987 article in American speech, linguists Edwin Eames and Howard Rob Boy identified 13 different terms for the submarine sandwich in the United States. The use of the term submarine or sub, after the resemblance of the role to the shape of a submarine, is widespread in the United States and Canada. Some accounts sourced the name as originally, originating in New London, Connecticut, side of a United States Navy submarine base from 1950 onwards

in the World War II era. Written advertisements from 1940 in Wilmington, Delaware, indicate the term originated prior to the United States entering World War II. One theory says the submarine sandwich was brought to the U.S. by Dominic Conti, an Italian immigrant who came to New York in the late 19th century. He supposedly named it Submarine Roll, after seeing the recovered 1901 submarine called Finney and Ram in the Pedersen Museum of New Jersey in 1928. His granddaughter said, My grandfather came to this country, circa 1895, from Montella, Italy. Around 1910, he started his grocery store called Dominic Conte's grocery store on Mill

Street in Patterson, New Jersey, where he was selling the traditional. traditional Italian sandwiches. His sandwiches were made from a recipe he brought with him from Italy, which consisted of a long crust roll filled with cold cuds, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, onions, oil, vinegar, Italian herbs and spices, salt and pepper. The sandwich started with a layer of cheese and ended with a layer of cheese. This was so the bread wouldn't get soggy. The term Hogi originated in the Philadelphia area. There are a number of hypotheses about the origin of the term.

One, in 1953, a reader letter to the Philadelphia Bulletin reported that Italian Americans were working at the World War I-era shipyard, known as Hog Island, where emergency shipping was produced for the war effort, introduced the sandwich by putting various meats, cheeses, and lettuce between two slices of bread. This became known as the Hog Island sandwich, shortened to hogies, then the hoagie. To Dictionary.com offers the following origin of the term hoagie. Noun, American English, originally Philadelphia word for hero, large sandwich made from a long split roll.

originally Hogi, circa 36, traditionally said to be named for the jazz musician Hogi Carmichael, 1899 to 1981, but the use of the word predates his celebrity, and the original spelling seems to suggest another source, perhaps hog. The modern spelling dates from about 1945. It may have been altered by influence of Carmichael's nickname. 3. The Philadelphia Almanac and Citizens Manual offers a different explanation, saying the sandwich was created by early 20th century street vendors called Hokie-Pokeymen, who sold on the pasto salad, meats, cookies, and buns with a cut in them. When Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta HMS Pinafore opened in Philadelphia in 1879, bakeries produced a long loaf called the Pinafore. entrepreneurial hokey-pokey men sliced the loaf in half, stuffed it with antipasta salad, and sold the world's first hoagie. This hypothesis seems unlikely as hokey-pokey men were known street vendors of an ice cream product.

4. Another explanation is that the word hoagie arose in the late 19th to early 20th centuries among the Italian community in South Philadelphia. At the time on the hoke meant that someone was destitute. Deli owners gave away scraps of cheeses and meats in an Italian bread roll known as a hokey. But Italian immigrants pronounced it, Hogi. Five. Yet another possible origin of the term, as conveyed by sociology professor Howard Rabeau, is that a man in Philadelphia, Alfonso de Palma, who later opened a sandwich shop there, claimed to have said in 1928,

you have to be a hog to eat one of those. De Palma styled himself as king of the hogies and eventually hoagies, and at one time had several hoggy shops around the city. Shortly after World War II, there were numerous varieties of the term in use throughout Philadelphia. By the 1940s, the spelling hoagy dominated less used, variants like Hoogie and Hogi. By 1955, restaurants throughout the area were using the term

Hogi. Listings in Pittsburgh show Hogis arriving in 1961 and becoming widespread in that city by 1966. Former Philadelphia mayor and later Pennsylvania governor, Ed Rendell, declared the Hogi to be the official

sandwich of Philadelphia. However, there are claims that the Hogi was actually a product of nearby Chester, Pennsylvania. DeCostanzas in Boothan, Pennsylvania, claims that the mother of DeCostanza's owner originated the Hogi in 1925 in Chester. DeCostanza relates to story that a customer came into the family deli, and through an exchange matching the customer's requests and the deli's offerings, the Hogi was created. Additional spellings include

Hogi, spelled H-O-A-G-Y. Woolworth's Togo sandwich was called a hoagie in all of its U.S. stores. Bon Mie sandwiches are sometimes referred to as Vietnamese hogies in Philadelphia. The New York term hero is first attested in 1937. The name is sometimes credited to the New York Herald Tribune food writer Clementine Paddleford in the 1930s. but there's no good evidence for the claim. It is also sometimes said that it is related to the Euro,

that as unlikely as the Euro was unknown in the United States until the 1960s. Hero remains the prevailing New York City term for most sandwiches on an oblong roll, with a generally Italian flavor, in addition to the original described above. Pizzeria menus often include. include eggplant, parmigana, chicken parmigiana, and meatball heroes, each served with sauce. A common term in New England, especially Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island is grinder. Its origin has several possibilities. One theory says it is derived from Italian-American

slang for a dock worker, among whom the sandwich was popular. Others say that it was called a grinder because the bread's hard crust required much chewing. In Pennsylvania, New York, and parts of New England, the term grinder usually refers to a hot submarine sandwich, meatball, sausage, etc. Whereas a cold sandwich, e.g. cold cuts, is usually called a sub. In the Philadelphia area, the term grinder is also applied to any hoagie

that is toasted in the oven after assembly. whether or not it is made with traditionally hot ingredients. The term Maine Italian, or simply Italian, is used in Maine. Local folklore claims that a baker named Giovanni Amato invented the Italian in 1890. The traditional Maine Italian sandwich is prepared using a long, soft bread roll, or bun with ham and bologna, along with American cheese, tomato, onion, green bell pepper, Greek olives, pickles, olive oil, or salad oil, salt, and cracked black pepper. Additional ingredients such as pepperoni, banana pepper, or lettuce may be added to the sandwich. The sandwich is often cut in half to make it easier to handle.

The term wedge is used in the New York counties of Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester. as well as a connecticut county of fairfield four counties directly north of new york city some based the name wedge on a diagonal cut in the middle of a sandwich creating two halves or wedges or a wedge cut out of the top half of the bread with the fillings wedged in between or a sandwich that is served between two wedges of bread it has been said that the wedge is short for sandwich with the name having a raised in between two wedges of bread it has been said that the wedge is short for sandwich with the name having a originated from an Italian deli owner located in Yonkers, who got tired of saying the whole word. Wedge or Wedgie can also refer to a northeastern deli meat sandwich cooked on pizza dough, or a style of club sandwich. The term Spucky is unique to the city of Boston and derives from the Italian word Sputjadella, meaning long roll. The word spuchadella is not typically found in Italian dictionaries, which may suggest that a could be a regional Italian dialect, or possibly a Boston-Italian-American innovation.

Spucky has typically heard in parts of Dorchester and South Boston. Some bakeries in Boston's north-end neighborhood have homemade Spucadillas for sale. Subs or their national equivalents were already popular in many European, Asian, and Australian countries when late 20th century franchise e-chain restaurants, such as Subway. and fast food outlets made them even more popular and increased the prevalence of the word sub. Many outlets offer non-traditional ingredient combinations. Major international chains include Firehouse Subs, Quiznows, Mr. Sub, Jersey Mikes, Jimmy Johns, Potbelly Sandwich Shop, and the largest restaurant chain in the world, Subway.

A bacon sandwich, also known in parts of the United Kingdom and New Zealand as a bacon buddy, bacon Bap, Bacon Cobb, or Bacon Sarny, is a sandwich of cooked bacon. It may be spread with butter and may be seasoned with brown sauce or tomato ketchup. It is generally served hot. In some establishments, the sandwich will be made from bread toasted on only one side. while other establishments serve it on a similar role as is used for hamburgers. Bacon sandwiches are an all-day favorite throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. They are often served in British cafes and delis and are anecdotally recommended as a hangover cure.

In 2007, researchers at Leeds University evaluated 700 variants of the sandwich, experimenting with different cooking styles, types of bacon, breads, oils, and special editions. Each variant was then ranked by 50 tasters. In conclusion, the best bacon sandwiches are made with crispy, fried, and not too fat bacon between thick slices of white bread. Another study by the direct line for business listed the top additions to the traditional bacon putty in England.

Although the original was still the preferred sandwich, the next top content. was the breggy, which adds an egg. The next most popular accessory was mushrooms, followed by cheese. For sauces, brown sauce was slightly favored over ketchup. However, Food Rider Felicity Cloak recommends neither, favoring marmalade and mustard instead. The BLT is a popular variant of the bacon sandwich with the additional ingredients of lettuce and tomato, but typically served cold. In Ontario, Canada,

pea-meal bacon sandwiches are a common variation, usually served on a soft Kaiser bun, and are considered the unofficial dish of Toronto. Bacon is a common ingredient in breakfast sandwiches, with the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich as a particularly common variation in New York City. A double-down is a sandwich offered by a Kentucky-fried chicken, KFC. The Double Down contains bacon, two different kinds of melted cheese, the Colonel's secret sauce,

pinched in between two pieces of original recipe chicken fillets. It is also available with grilled chicken filets instead of the original recipe fried fillets. The KFC Double Down was initially test marketed in Omaha, Nebraska, and Providence, Rhode Island. KFC describes the Double Down as a sandwich. although it does not have bread. Fool's Gold Loaf is a sandwich made by the Colorado Mine Company, a five-star restaurant in Denver, Colorado. The sandwich consists of a single, warmed, hollowed-out loaf of bread,

filled with one jar of creamy peanut butter, one jar of grape jelly, and a pound of bacon. The name of the sandwich is derived from its price of $49.95. The baked bean sandwich is a sandwich composed of baked beans between two slices of bread, which may include garnishes such as lettuce and toppings such as mayonnaise or ketchup. Recipes for a baked bean sandwich can be traced from as early as 1909. One book entitled Cooking for Two by Janet McKenzie Hill suggest such a recipe as a substitute for meatless cooking

and is a much more elaborate sandwich compared to its most common manifestation today. Many early recipes describe essentially the same product that has become popular today. However, in addition, they incite elaborate additions of garnish and dressing. Hill suggests butter two slices of Boston brown bread. on one of these dispose a heart leaf of lettuce holding a teaspoon of salad dressing. Above the dressing set a generous tablespoon of cold baked beans, then another lettuce leaf and dressing. Then finish with a second slice of bread, a tablespoon of beans, a flower out of cauliflower, and a teaspoonful of dressing over the cauliflower.

The Boston area version of the sandwich is skews topping. and garnishes, being composed simply of baked beans between two slices of Boston brown bread.