Type of sandwich originating from the United States
Submarine sandwich
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Submarine_sandwich_with_toppings_and_dijon_mustard.jpg/250px-Submarine_sandwich_with_toppings_and_dijon_mustard.jpg) A submarine sandwich
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Alternative names
|
- Bomber
- garibaldi
- grinder
- hero
- hoagie
- Italian
- musalatta
- poor boy
- rocket
- torpedo
- zep
[1]
|
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Place of origin
| United States
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Region or state
| Northeast
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Main ingredients
| Multiple
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Variations
| Multiple
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A
submarine sandwich
, commonly known as a
sub
,
hoagie
(
Philadelphia metropolitan area
and
Western Pennsylvania English
),
hero
(
New York City English
),
Italian
[note 1]
(
Maine English
),
grinder
(New England English, Fulton County, NY),
wedge
(
Westchester, NY
), or a
spuckie
(
Boston English
) is a type of American cold or hot
sandwich
made from a cylindrical
bread roll
split lengthwise and filled with meats, cheeses, vegetables, and condiments.
[2]
[3]
The terms
submarine
and
sub
are widespread in the US and not assignable to any certain part, although many of the localized terms are clustered in the northeastern United States.
History and etymology
[
edit
]
The Italian sandwich originated in several different
Italian-American
communities
in the
northeastern United States
from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries.
[4]
The popularity of the
Italian-American
sandwich grew from its origins in
Connecticut
,
Pennsylvania
,
Delaware
,
Maryland
,
New York
,
New Jersey
,
Massachusetts
, and
Rhode Island
extending to most of the United States and Canada. With the advent of
chain restaurants
, it is available in much of the world.
[5]
[6]
[7]
Sociologists Edwin Eames and Howard Robboy identified thirteen different terms for the submarine sandwich in the United States.
[1]
Submarine
[
edit
]
The use of the term "submarine" or "sub" (after the resemblance of the roll to the shape of a
submarine
) is widespread in the United States and Canada.
[2]
While some accounts source the name as originating in
New London, Connecticut
(site of the
United States Navy's primary submarine base
) during
World War II
, written advertisements from 1940 in
Wilmington, Delaware
indicate the term originated prior to the United States's entry into World War II.
[8]
Fenian Ram
submarine,
c.
1920
One theory says the submarine was brought to the U.S. by Dominic Conti (1874?1954), an
Italian
immigrant who came to New York in the late 19th century.
[4]
He supposedly named it after seeing the recovered 1901 submarine called
Fenian Ram
in the
Paterson Museum
of New Jersey in 1928. His granddaughter said:
My grandfather came to this country circa 1895 from
Montella
, Italy. Around 1910, he started his grocery store, called Dominic Conti's Grocery Store, on Mill Street in
Paterson, New Jersey
where he was selling the traditional Italian sandwiches. His sandwiches were made from a recipe he brought with him from Italy, which consisted of a long crust roll, filled with cold cuts, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, onions, oil, vinegar, Italian herbs and spices, salt, and pepper. The sandwich started with a layer of cheese and ended with a layer of cheese (this was so the bread wouldn't get soggy).
[4]
Party sub
[
edit
]
A
party sub
is a particularly long submarine sandwich, usually cut into pieces and served to guests at parties.
A very long party sub
Hoagie
[
edit
]
Workers read the
Hog Island News
Salami, ham and cheeses on a
hoagie roll
The term
hoagie
originated in the
Philadelphia
area. In 1953, the
Philadelphia Bulletin
reported that Italians working at the
World War I
?era shipyard known as
Hog Island
, where
emergency shipping
was produced for the war effort, introduced the sandwich by putting various meats, cheeses, and lettuce between two slices of bread.
[9]
This became known as the "Hog Island" sandwich; shortened to "Hoggies", then the "hoagie".
[10]
Dictionary.com
offers the following origin of the term
hoagie -
n. American English (originally Philadelphia) word for "hero, large sandwich made from a long, split roll"; originally
hoggie
(c. 1936), traditionally said to be named for the jazz musician
Hoagy Carmichael
(1899?1981), but the use of the word predates his celebrity and the original spelling seems to suggest another source (perhaps "hog"). The modern spelling dates from about 1945; it may have been altered by influence of Carmichael's nickname.
[11]
The
Philadelphia Almanac and Citizen's Manual
offers a different explanation saying the sandwich was created by early-twentieth-century street vendors called "hokey-pokey men", who sold
antipasto
salad, meats, cookies, and buns with a cut in them. When
Gilbert and Sullivan
's operetta
H.M.S. Pinafore
opened in Philadelphia in 1879, bakeries produced a long loaf called the pinafore. Entrepreneurial "hokey-pokey men" sliced the loaf in half, stuffed it with antipasto salad, and sold the world's first "hoagie".
[12]
Another explanation is that the word
hoagie
arose in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, among the Italian community in
South Philadelphia
; at the time "on the hoke" meant that someone was destitute. Deli owners gave away scraps of cheeses and meats in an Italian bread-roll known as a "hokie", but Italian immigrants pronounced it "hoagie".
[1]
Yet another possible origin of the term, as conveyed by Howard Robboy is that a man in Philadelphia, Alphonso DePalma, who later opened a sandwich shop there claimed to have said in 1928, "You have to be a hog to eat one of those."
[13]
Shortly after
World War II
, there were numerous varieties of the term in use throughout Philadelphia. By the 1940s, the spelling "hoagie" dominated less-used variations like "hoogie" and "hoggie".
[14]
By 1955, restaurants throughout the area were using the term
hoagie
. Listings in
Pittsburgh
show hoagies arriving in 1961 and becoming widespread in that city by 1966.
[14]
Former Philadelphia mayor (and later
Pennsylvania
governor)
Ed Rendell
declared the hoagie to be the "Official Sandwich of Philadelphia".
[15]
However, there are claims that the hoagie was actually a product of nearby
Chester, Pennsylvania
.
[16]
DiCostanza's in
Boothwyn, Pennsylvania
claims that the mother of DiConstanza's owner originated the hoagie in 1925 in Chester. DiCostanza relates the story that a customer came into the family deli and through an exchange matching the customer's requests and the deli's offerings, the hoagie was created.
[17]
[18]
Woolworth's
to-go sandwich was called a
hoagie
in all of its U.S. stores.
[19]
Banh mi
sandwiches are sometimes referred to as "
Vietnamese
hoagies" in Philadelphia.
[20]
Hero
[
edit
]
New York style meatball hero with mozzarella
The New York term
hero
is first attested in 1937.
[21]
The name is sometimes credited to the
New York Herald Tribune
food writer
Clementine Paddleford
in the 1930s, but there is no good evidence for the claim. It is also sometimes said that it is related to the
gyro
;
that is unlikely as the
gyro
was unknown in the United States until the 1960s.
[5]
Hero
(plural usually
heros
not
heroes
[22]
) remains the prevailing New York City term for most sandwiches on an oblong roll with a generally Italian flavor, in addition to the original described above. Pizzeria menus often include
eggplant parmigiana
,
chicken parmigiana
, and
meatball
heros, each served with sauce.
Grinder
[
edit
]
Pastrami
grinder
A common term in
New England
, especially Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island is
grinder;
its origin has several possibilities.
[23]
One theory says it is derived from
Italian-American
slang for a dock worker, among whom the sandwich was popular.
[5]
Others say that it was called a grinder because the bread's hard crust required much chewing.
[24]
In Pennsylvania, New York, and parts of New England, the term
grinder
usually refers to a
hot
submarine sandwich (meatball, sausage, etc.), whereas a cold sandwich (e.g.,
cold cuts
) is usually called a "sub".
[8]
In the Philadelphia area, the term
grinder
is also applied to any hoagie that is toasted in the oven after assembly, whether or not it is made with traditionally hot ingredients.
Italian
[
edit
]
The term "Maine Italian" or simply "Italian" is used in
Maine
. Local folklore claims that a baker named
Giovanni Amato
invented the Italian in 1899.
[25]
A cross-section of an Italian sandwich
The traditional
Maine Italian sandwich
is prepared using a long, soft bread roll or bun with ham along with
American cheese
, tomato, onion,
green bell pepper
, Greek olives, pickles,
olive oil
or
salad oil
, salt and cracked black pepper.
[26]
[27]
[28]
Additional ingredients, such as
pepperoni
,
banana pepper
, or
lettuce
may be added to the sandwich. The sandwich is often cut in half to make it easier to handle.
[26]
[29]
[30]
Wedge
[
edit
]
The term
wedge
is used in the
New York
counties of
Dutchess
,
Putnam
, and
Westchester
, as well as the
Connecticut
county of
Fairfield
?four counties directly north of New York City. Some base the name
wedge
on a diagonal cut in the middle of the sandwich, creating two halves or "wedges", or a "wedge" cut out of the top half of the bread with the fillings "wedged" in between, or a sandwich that is served between two "wedges" of bread. It has been said that
wedge
is short for "sandwich", with the name having originated from an Italian deli owner located in
Yonkers
, who got tired of saying the whole word.
[31]
[8]
Spukie
[
edit
]
The term
spukie
("spukkie" or "spuckie") is unique to the city of
Boston
and derives from the Italian word
spuccadella
, meaning "long roll". The word
spuccadella
is not typically found in
Italian
dictionaries, which may suggest that it could be a regional Italian dialect, or possibly a
Boston
Italian-American innovation. Spukie is typically heard in parts of
Dorchester
and
South Boston
. Some bakeries in Boston's
North End
neighborhood have homemade spuccadellas for sale.
[32]
Other names
[
edit
]
A
Gatsby
sandwich
Popularity and availability
[
edit
]
In the United States, from its origins with the Italian-American labor force in the northeast, the sub began to show up on menus of local pizzerias. As time went on and its popularity grew, small restaurants, called hoagie shops and sub shops which specialized offering the sandwich began to open.
[5]
Pizzerias may have been among the first Italian-American eateries, but even at the turn of the [20th] century distinctions were clear-cut as to what constituted a true ristorante. To be merely a pizza-maker was to be at the bottom of the culinary and social scale; so many pizzeria owners began offering other dishes, including the hero sandwich (also, depending on the region of the United States, called a 'wedge,' a 'hoagie,' a 'sub,' or a 'grinder') made on an Italian loaf of bread with lots of
salami
, cheese, and peppers.
?
John Mariani,
America Eats Out
, p. 66
Subs or their national equivalents were already popular in many European, Asian, and Australasian countries when late 20th-century
franchisee
chain restaurants such as
Subway
and
fast food
outlets made them even more popular and increased the prevalence of the word
sub
. Many outlets offer non-traditional ingredient combinations. In the United States, there are many
chain restaurants that specialize in subs
. Major international chains include
Firehouse Subs
,
Quiznos
,
Mr. Sub
,
Jersey Mike's
,
Jimmy John's
, and the largest restaurant chain in the world, Subway.
[36]
The sandwich is also often available at
supermarkets
, local
delis
, and
convenience stores
. They include
Wawa
, which annually runs a sub promotional event during the summer called Hoagiefest,
[37]
and
Publix
, whose sandwiches are often referred to as "pub subs".
[38]
[39]
See also
[
edit
]
- ^
The name is somewhat misleading, because although the sandwich originated in the United States from Italian immigrants, it would be considered a foreign and exotic dish by Native Italians living in Italy.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Eames, Edwin; Robboy, Howard (December 1967).
"The Submarine Sandwich, Lexical Variations in a Cultural Context"
.
American Speech
.
42
(4): 279?288.
doi
:
10.2307/452990
.
JSTOR
452990
.
Accessed January 15, 2020
(subscription required)
.
- ^
a
b
"submarine sandwich"
.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
(Fourth ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2000
. Retrieved
August 22,
2013
.
- ^
"po'boy"
.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
.
Springfield
. Retrieved
March 20,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
c
Stradley, Linda.
"History of Hoagies, Submarine Sandwiches, Po' Boys Sandwiches, Dagwood Sandwiches, & Italian Sandwiches"
. Whatscookingamerica.net
. Retrieved
March 11,
2012
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Wilton, Dave (Autumn 2003).
"A Hoagie by Any Other Name"
(PDF)
.
Verbatim
.
XXVII
(3)
. Retrieved
November 21,
2008
.
- ^
"Ogden Finds a New Gastronomic Love in a Submarine Sandwich"
.
Wilmington Sunday Morning Star
. September 7, 1941.
- ^
Popik, Barry
(April 5, 2008).
"The Big Apple: Submarine Sandwich"
. Retrieved
August 22,
2013
.
Delaware has the strongest claim to the 'submarine sandwich,' with that term appearing in a Wilmington telephone directory in January 1940.
- ^
a
b
c
Peterson, Sam Dean, Erik S. (February 2013).
"The Origin of Hoagies, Grinders, Subs, Heroes, and Spuckies"
.
Bonappetit.com
. Retrieved
December 23,
2017
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
"Philadelphia's Local Flavors"
.
www.philadelphiausa.travel
. Archived from
the original
on July 27, 2009.
- ^
"Philly Via Italy"
.
www.34st.com
. Retrieved
June 28,
2022
.
- ^
"Definition of hoagie"
.
Dictionary.com
. Retrieved
August 3,
2019
.
- ^
Finkel, Kenneth, ed. (1995).
Philadelphia Almanac and Citizen's Manual
. Philadelphia: The Library Company of Philadelphia. p. 86.
- ^
Swick, Thomas (August 4, 1977).
"Please Pass the Subs?Er, Hoagies, Er..."
Trenton Times
. Retrieved
January 22,
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Labov, William (2003).
"Pursuing the Cascade Model"
. In Peter Trudgill; David Britain; Jenny Cheshire (eds.).
Social Dialectology: In Honour of Peter Trudgill
. John Benjamins Publishing Co.
ISBN
978-1-58811-403-7
.
- ^
"Philadelphia USA"
.
Philadelphia USA
(in Spanish)
. Retrieved
January 15,
2023
.
- ^
Gebhart, Ed (February 9, 2003).
"Hoagie, then known as Italian sandwich, got start in Chester"
.
Delaware County Daily Times
. Archived from
the original
on July 28, 2009.
- ^
"1925: Hoagie Rolls into County History"
.
Dicostanzas.com
. Archived from
the original
on November 17, 2001
. Retrieved
December 9,
2009
.
- ^
Vigoda, Ralph (March 5, 2003).
"How the Hoagie Started: Truth, or a Lot of Baloney?"
.
Philadelphia Inquirer
. Archived from
the original
on March 30, 2012
. Retrieved
May 21,
2019
.
- ^
"Worcester, Mass - Places of the Past, Woolworth's"
.
Worcestermass.com
. Retrieved
July 1,
2015
.
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.
Woodenboat.com
. December 26, 2005
. Retrieved
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.
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.
Chowhound.chow.com
. September 7, 2001. Archived from
the original
on June 26, 2015
. Retrieved
July 1,
2015
.
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. railroad-line.com
. Retrieved
February 2,
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.
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.
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. March 18, 2011
. Retrieved
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
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.
4lawschool.com
. Archived from
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. Retrieved
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.
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.
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. Archived from
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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.
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. July 20, 2006. Archived from
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. Retrieved
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2015
.
- ^
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. Retrieved
August 22,
2013
.
- ^
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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.
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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.
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. Dublin: Yankee Publishing
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
a
b
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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.
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.
- ^
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.
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.
- ^
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.
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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"Pub subs" on sale this week: How to get discounted Publix sandwiches for $5.99"
.
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- ^
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.
External links
[
edit
]
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