Sandwiches are named after John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich who had servants bring him food in bread, to allow him to eat while continuing his other activities. The question seems to be whether this was to allow him to do his political paperwork or play cards while eating.
image from Wikimedia Commons
First a bit of definition - the french loaf consists of two parts the "croûte" and the "mie". In English there is no word for mie. So when we look at a loaf its bread and crust, while the French see bread, crust and mie. In fact they call a loaf of English type bread "pain de mie"!
I it's interesting to contrast three sandwiches which I believe characterise the cultures within with they are used.
The first - like those most sought after egg sandwiches of Mrs M at the CSIR in the old days or a proverbial cucumber sandwich. These are neat and precise much like the "upper crust" English who have them for tea!
image from Flickr
They are produced by adding the filling (which could be cucumber, sandwich spread, egg mayonnaise, marmite or similar) between two thin slices of bread (pain de mie) which then has the crusts removed and are cut into more manageable portions.
The second - a much heartier sandwich, more a meal rather than something to have with tea! The base for this is a good baguette sliced lengthways and completed with a simple quality filling. The filling is most likely to be ham, saucisson or cheese, possibly ham and cheese but not simply a long loaf stuffed with all the deli sandwich making ingredients possible!
image from Flickr
Size can vary, just as the baguette varies - the other day lunching on a merguez roll at a cafe, I watched as two leather clad bikers ripped into sandwiches the size and of an American Football. This worked quite well until a rather petit young woman was served the same sandwich and was reduced to gasping and pulling small mouthfuls off the bread.
The third - the quarter loaf which is two very thick slices of a white loaf filled with a meal often chips, processed meat and achaar. The quarter loaf in Gauteng is similar to the Gatsby in the Western Cape, both going back to the original intent of Lord Sandwich to provide an easy way to eat a meal.
image from a blog
The quarter loaf is a rough, ready and affordable way of eating a hearty meal with little finesse. A colleague even insisted, that when she was at school they placed quarter loaves under the wheels of parked cars about to drive off to get a compressed sandwich.
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