# Do American people make sandwiches at home? Or is it more of a specialty thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [June 10, 2025, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414 "2025-06-10T07:18:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/121 "2025-06-10T18:15:48Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Is cold meatloaf better if you hold it between two slices of bread than of you just eat it, either with a plastic fork or with your fingers? Better question: is there any food that _isn’t_ improved by surrounding it with bread? I submit that there is not. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/122 "2025-06-10T18:22:40Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Better question: is there any food that _isn’t_ improved by surrounding it with bread? Bread isn’t improved by surrounding it with bread. It’s not **worse** either, but not improved. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/123 "2025-06-10T18:49:02Z")
I have to disagree. If you surround bread with bread, you get more bread. Which is better than less bread. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/124 "2025-06-10T18:55:09Z")
Anyone ever make a shark sandwich at home? Now, I know what you’re thinking, but this one actually looks pretty good: [![](https://potatorolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Shark-Hoagie2-960x640.jpg) ](https://potatorolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Shark-Hoagie2-960x640.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/125 "2025-06-10T19:07:18Z")
A sincere question (from a non-American) in this parody thread, if I may: What does it take for something-on-bread to qualify as a sandwich? For example my wife and I usually eat a hot lunch at work or somewhere else, and _Butterbrot_ in the evening: on the supermarket or market run every 2-3 days we buy half a loaf of bread, some thin slices of sausage and cheese. For dinner we put everything on the table, cut off a slice of bread, smear with butter, put slices of salami, mortadella, cheese etc. on the slice, eat. Does this fulfil the canonical conditions of a “sandwich”? For a day hike we make _Klappstullen_ - the same thing, but the slice cut once and folded over, for ease of eating. Does this quality as a “sandwich”? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/126 "2025-06-10T19:09:46Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > Does this fulfil the canonical conditions of a “sandwich”? You can call your canapé whatever you want. We have open-faced sandwiches on one slice of bread but those usually have some sort of gravy poured over the top. > [@Mops](#): > > For a day hike we make _Klappstullen_ - the same thing, but the slice cut once and folded over, for ease of eating. Does this quality as a “sandwich”? You are getting perilously close to the “Is a taco a sandwich?” debate. Lives have been lost… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/127 "2025-06-10T19:11:31Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > And it may be accurate, possibly even interesting, but clearly not the intended meaning and understanding of the word “sushi” as used by the OP of the thread that this was a failed parody of. It was a successful parody because the OP of the original thread did not seem to understand the meaning of “sushi”, seeming to assume that it required being an elaborate roll made from a kit. Here’s a recent article. Out of 20 common recipes, it lists one sushi variety. > **[20 Typical Japanese Meals at Home and How to Cook Them](https://blog.japanwondertravel.com/japanese-meals-at-home-25119)** > > Sushi and ramen are very famous, but Japanese home cooking that people eat daily is the best! Here is our list of typical Japanese home meals that you can try making at home. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/128 "2025-06-10T19:15:14Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > You are getting perilously close to the “Is a taco a sandwich?” debate. Lives have been lost… It’s a genuine “We do not talk about the orangutan!” subject. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/129 "2025-06-10T19:16:17Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Which is better than less bread. Hmm… Touché. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/130 "2025-06-10T19:16:24Z")
I would call both of those sandwiches, fwiw. And i obviously don’t like bread as much as Miller. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/131 "2025-06-10T19:18:02Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > We have open-faced sandwiches on one slice of bread but those usually have some sort of gravy poured over the top. Here (and likely elsewhere), those are prefixed with the word “hot.” For example: Roast beef sandwich: Bread on top and bottom, and roast beef in between. It can be eaten with one’s hands. Hot roast beef sandwich: One slice of bread or toast, hot roast beef on top, gravy poured over it all. You need a knife and fork for this. Of course, you can use other meats (e.g. turkey), but “hot \_\_\_ sandwich” typically means hot and drowning in gravy. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/132 "2025-06-10T19:22:06Z")
I make open faced sandwiches which are cold and involve no gravy, fwiw. I don’t always call them sandwiches. Sometimes, i call them, “eggs on toast”. But i make an open faced grilled cheese sandwich (in the toaster oven) and i also put sardines on bread sometimes for lunch, or slices of cheese. Or fois gras if i decided to treat myself. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/133 "2025-06-10T19:22:31Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > What does it take for something-on-bread to qualify as a sandwich? This has been heavily debated for many years. It is even something that has gone to court and has been debated as a matter of law. We take sandwiches seriously! In the case of _White City Shopping Ctr., LP v. PR Rests., LLC_, in Boston, Massachusetts, the judge made a ruling. > In his ruling, Locke cited Webster’s definition of a sandwich and explained that the difference comes down to two slices of bread versus one tortilla: “A sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos, and quesadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans,” he wrote. > **[Arguments spread thick - The Boston Globe](https://web.archive.org/web/20081207062109/http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/11/10/arguments_spread_thick)** Not particularly clear though. > For dinner we put everything on the table, cut off a slice of bread, smear with butter, put slices of salami, mortadella, cheese etc. on the slice, eat. > > Does this fulfil the canonical conditions of a “sandwich”? In the US, we call that an “open-faced sandwich”. Which is still considered a sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/134 "2025-06-10T19:24:40Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > But i make an open faced grilled cheese sandwich (in the toaster oven) … I haven’t had one of those in years. And I haven’t yet had lunch. Hmmm … Thanks for the idea! ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/135 "2025-06-10T19:28:54Z")
Hmm… I will often make cheesy garlic bread. Some kind of bread (if you want to be fancy, a halved baguette, but I’ll use any bread), put on some butter, garlic powder, salt, and some shredded parmesan. (Not the powdered kind, the strips of parmesan.) Heat it in the toaster oven under the “toast” setting. It comes out absolutely amazing. Now, one could argue that I’ve made an open-faced grilled cheese sandwich. I have never thought of it that way, but technically it’s not wrong. 🤯 ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/136 "2025-06-10T19:29:51Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > the OP of the original thread did not seem to understand the meaning of “sushi”, Corrected that understanding and use of the word “sushi” is pedantic at best, belonging in the real world sightings of not picking thread. I will happily embrace the fact that despite having ate a fair amount of sushi of all sorts in Japan my American usage of the word includes sushi rice prepared to a proper level of stickiness and that the image called up will include some raw items. Americans speaking to Americans don’t give a flying fish roe that that that isn’t exactly “correct” ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/137 "2025-06-10T19:39:20Z")
Sometimes yeah. And sometimes we’ve got garden produce that can go on there too. Every now and then, we’ve even got home-cured and/or smoked meat too. The stars haven’t quite aligned yet such that I’ve made a home cured & smoked ham sand on homemade bread with homegrown lettuce and tomatoes on it. Not all at the same time anyway. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/138 "2025-06-10T19:43:02Z")
I lived in a student co-op in Boston in a previous millennium that had a pantry with certain staples that were included in the rent. Whole wheat bread, peanut butter and raisins make a healthy, tasty and durable sandwich that could be assembled while barely awake and would survive rolled in a napkin in a book bag for a 364 Smoot winter’s bike ride across the river while ending up looking so unappetizing that no one would dream of stealing your lunch. Had one every day. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/139 "2025-06-10T19:43:28Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > Does this fulfil the canonical conditions of a “sandwich”? > > For a day hike we make _Klappstullen_ - the same thing, but the slice cut once and folded over, for ease of eating. Does this quality as a “sandwich”? Yes on both. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414/140 "2025-06-10T19:43:30Z")
Nvrmind [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-american-people-make-sandwiches-at-home-or-is-it-more-of-a-specialty-thing/1019414.md?page=8)