Blast from the past: The demise of the simple sandwich
Sandwiches have become way too complicated. Stacked ridiculously high and overstuffed with all manner of weird and wonderful ingredients, you’d often need a knife and fork and a bib to eat one.
But before brie and grape, avocado and halloumi, bagels, sourdough and foccacia, sandwiches were a simple, straightforward, one-ingredient affair on plain white sliced pan.
Fillings were unimaginative but delicious. Jam, strawberry or raspberry, were favourites. Mothers would sometimes go off piste with Lemon Curd or Rosses Lime Jelly, especially if visitors were coming. Then rectangles would be replaced by four perfect triangles.
We’d raid the cupboard for condiments. Salad Cream, HP sauce and tomato ketchup, all made great ‘sammiches’. And sometimes all you needed was a plain butter piece, or to bite your little rotting teeth into a sugar sandwich.
Bananas made a great sandwich. As did tomato and salt, although left too long, they’d become gluey mess. Crisps were, and still are, delectable in a sandwich. Corned beef and brown sauce, not so much. Fish and meat pastes were once all the rage. They can still be found on the granny shelves of your local supermarket, alongside the graving browning and Camp coffee.