Home » VT News » Great Moments in Gambling Number 153: The Invention of the Sandwich
Great Moments in Gambling Number 153: The Invention of the Sandwich
As every "Jeopardy" contestant knows, the sandwich was invented during a 24-hour gambling binge, when John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, demanded something he could eat without having to put his cards down. The idea spread like wildfire in 1762.
Lord Sandwich actually wasn't the first to wrap meat in bread; people had been doing that for centuries.
So how did the idea end up with his name on it?
Here's how. In his journal that same year, historian Edward Gibbon described a fashionable London gathering as "a sight truly English. Twenty or thirty of the first men in the kingdom supping on a bit of cold meat, or a Sandwich."
That was the thing. Rich people who could easily be sitting down to a roast with all the trimmings were eating cold meat on toast. Because of Sandwich Ñ clearly a gambling addict in need of an intervention Ñ it wasn't a nameless snack anymore; it was a fashion.

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