How popular is this snack in Britain, and what exactly goes into a good sandwich? Sandwich expert and author Max Halley stacks up his favorites.
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00:00The common sandwich. Is it a deli specialty, or more of a catch-all solution? Either way,
00:08in Britain, it's definitely the best-seller of best-sellers.
00:13Let's say four times a week.
00:16It's quick and convenient.
00:17In my case, it's usually a necessity.
00:19I'd probably say it's once a month, because I don't come into the office that often, actually.
00:24British supermarkets and sandwich shops combined sell about three and a half billion packaged
00:30sandwiches annually. A current favourite is bacon, with ham, cheese and chicken close
00:36behind.
00:38I'm very plain. I just like a cheese and ham sandwich, to be honest, yeah.
00:41Chicken bacon. That's what I go for normally. It's normally one of the cheapest, so it's
00:46best to go for that.
00:47Oh, I'm quite a boring guy, so I just like cheese and ham.
00:49I quite like just your plain ham sandwich, and then get some crisps, and like salted
00:55mango crisps, and mush it inside.
00:57It's tuna and cucumber mayo.
01:00Where did the sandwich get its name? Long ago, the Montague family took the name of
01:04the town of Sandwich in southeastern England as their title. John Montague, the 18th century
01:10fourth Earl of Sandwich, was so obsessed with gambling, he wouldn't even stop to eat. So
01:15he had meat placed between two slices of bread, and the sandwich was born.
01:21In 2024, Max Holley published his second book about sandwiches. At his sandwich shop in
01:27North London, he's won awards for his original creations.
01:31I'm going to show you how to make one of the world's best sandwiches.
01:34His special sandwich is made with stewed pork roast, bread, chutney, mayonnaise, matchstick
01:40thin french fries and a fried egg.
01:43I wanted to base the sandwich on a famous plate of food. So ham, egg and chips, which
01:50is what this sandwich is, is the classic British pub lunch.
01:56Every good sandwich begins with good bread. It doesn't have to be soft white bread.
02:03We make our focaccia with packaged yeast, because it always behaves identically. It
02:10means that our fermentation is quick. So the bread has, as you can see here, lots and lots
02:16and lots of little holes made by the carbon dioxide, rather than those big gaps that you
02:22would get in sourdough, which to me are just places where mayonnaise can't be put.
02:28And Max isn't stingy with any of the ingredients. Thick helpings of mayonnaise keep everything
02:33nice and moist.
02:40What I am doing is making the sandwich, building the sandwich in layers, to guarantee that
02:47when I eat it, every element is in every bite.
02:54The chutney is made with onions, fennel and mango in the shop. And these super thin fries
02:59are a stroke of genius.
03:05The crisps are there to provide crunch rather than to provide flavour particularly.
03:11Not every sandwich in Britain aspires to be haute cuisine. The majority come from supermarkets
03:16and look more like this.
03:22I have absolutely nothing against supermarket sandwiches. I find that generally they are
03:26worth the money that you are charged for them most of the time. But I would say, perhaps
03:34convenience has trumped deliciousness.
03:39Pre-packaged sandwiches first appeared in 1980. In today's Britain they bring in about
03:459.3 billion euros in revenue annually. About three quarters of all expenditures for lunch
03:51on the go are invested in sandwiches.
03:55The sandwich says that there's not a lot of time for lunch.
04:01But can the British really lay claim to the first portable meal in between bread? Max
04:06Holley draws inspiration for his sandwich creations from all over the world, like from
04:10the Caesar salad, said to have been created by an Italian in Mexico. But Max insists that
04:16all truly good sandwiches have something in common.
04:20The rule is hot, cold, sweet, sour, crunchy and soft. And it is within those three core
04:29contrasts that, I believe, your brain finds deliciousness.
04:35Max's sandwich shop does not allow knives and forks on the table. A sandwich has to
04:40be held by hand and eaten with a hearty munch, no matter how thickly layered they are.