John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, is said to have invented the sandwich in 1762.
The Earl loved to gamble, and so as not to interrupt his card game a servant was ordered to bring him a piece of meat between two slices of buttered bread. That is how the Earl gave his name to the sandwich!
Montagu was a hardened gambler and usually gambled for hours at a time at this restaurant, sometimes refusing to get up even for meals. It is said that ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread. Because Montagu also happened to be the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, others began to order “the same as Sandwich!” The original sandwich was, in fact, a piece of salt beef between two slices of toasted bread.
John Montagu’s biographer, N. A. M. Rodger, points out in the book, The Insatiable Earl – A Life of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, that the sole source for giving Montagu credit for the invention of the sandwich, was gossip mentioned in a travel book by Grosley, and that at the period in question 1765, he was known to be very busy, and it is just as likely that it was for the purpose of eating at his desk.
Credit : What’s Cooking America
Picture Credit : Google
