THE BLUFFERS GUIDE TO SANDWICHES
■ Today is the first day of British Sandwich Week, which runs until May 22. So here is some trivia about sandwiches.
❑ Legend has it that the sandwich as we know it was created by John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, below, on August 6, 1762.
❑ A corrupt man, he enjoyed gambling and didn’t like to leave the table. A servant brought him slices of beef wrapped in bread.
❑ The story isn’t true although the sandwich is undoubtedly named after him.
❑ Captain James Cook named the Sandwich Islands in the earl’s honour – they are now known as Hawaii.
❑ Sandwiches have been around for years – the Romans ate sandwiches but they called them offula.
❑ Posh US newspaper The Wall Street Journal called the sandwich Britain’s “biggest contribution to gastronomy”.
❑ A YouTuber from Minnesota decided to make his own chicken sandwich from scratch. He grew a garden, harvested wheat, slaughtered a chicken and boiled ocean water for salt.
❑ The project took six months and cost $1,500. He said the finished sarnie did not taste very good.
❑ Brits eat around 11.5billion sandwiches a year. That is about 31million daily.
❑ According to boffins at Newcastle University, a bacon sandwich can cure a hangover.
❑ The earliest reference to a “bacon sandwich” in the Oxford English Dictionary is by George Orwell in 1931.
❑ The first written record of the word “sandwich” appeared in historian Edward Gibbons’s journal on November 24, 1762.
❑ Astronaut John Young, below, pilot of Gemini 3, smuggled a corned beef sandwich on to the flight.
❑ The first Pret a Manger was founded in Hampstead, London, on October 21, 1983.
❑ In February this year, Pret said it was closing its veggieonly branches.
❑ The first published sandwich recipe appeared in a 1763 cookbook for upper-class housewives.
❑ Entertainer Bruce Forsyth was older than sliced bread. He was born on February 22, 1928, the first sliced bread was introduced on July 7, 1928.
❑ On February 1, 1976, Elvis Presley took his private jet from his home Graceland to Denver, Colorado, and back in one night for an 8,000 calorie jam, peanut butter and bacon butty.