History of
Hoagies, Submarine, Po' Boys,
Dagwood, & Italian
Sanwiches
© copyright 2004 by
Linda Stradley - United States Copyright TX 5-900-517- All rights
reserved.
This web site may not be reproduced in whole or in part
without written permission and
appropriate credit given.
If you use any of the history
information contained below for research in writing an article or school
work,
you must give a reference to the author, Linda Stradley, and to
the web site What's Cooking America,
and/or my cookbook I'll
Have What They're Having - Legendary Local Cuisine.
These
sandwiches are known by various names depending on where you live in
this country. Some of those names include: Submarine, Heros, Hoagie,
Grinder, Po' Boy, Rocket, Torpedo, Dagwood, Hero, Zepplin, and Italian
Sandwich. These are king-sized sandwich on a loaf of bread approximately
12 inches long an 3 inches wide, filled with various cold cuts and many
different trimmings.
Dagwood Sandwich -
It is a multi-layered sandwich with a variety of fillings. Used to
denote a sandwich put together so as to attain such a tremendous size
and infinite variety of contents as to stun the imagination, sight, and
stomach of all but the original maker.
A term that originated in the comic strips in the 1930s after a comic
strip character named Dagwood Bumstead. According to the creator of the
comic, Murat Bernard “Chic” Young (1901-1973), the only thing that
Dagwood could prepare in the kitchen was a mountainous pile of
dissimilar leftovers precariously arranged between two slices of bread.
Dagwood became know for his huge sandwiches he created on evening forays
to the refrigerator.
Hoagie – Hoagies are built-to-order sandwiches filled
with meat and cheese, as well as lettuce, tomatoes, and onions, topped
off with a dash of oregano-vinegar dressing on an Italian roll. A true
Italian Hoagie is made with Italian ham, prosciutto salami, and
provolone cheese, along with all the works. It was declared the
“Official Sandwich of Philadelphia” in 1992.
The Hoagie was originally created in Philadelphia.
There are a number of different versions to how the Hoagie got its name,
but no matter what version is right (historians cannot seem to agree on
the correct version), all agree that it started in Philadelphia or the
towns' suburbs.
(1) The most widely accepted story
centers on an area of Philadelphia known as Hog Island, which was home
to a shipyard during World War I (1914-1918). The Italian immigrants
working there would bring giant sandwiches made with cold cuts,
spices, oil, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and peppers for their lunches.
These workers were nicknamed “hoggies.” Over the years, the name was
attached to the sandwiches, but under a different spelling.
(2) Another
version on this story says that workers at Hog Island did bring this
type of sandwich for lunch, but it was never called a hoagie. The
story goes, that one day an Irish worker, who everyday carried an
American cheese sandwich, looked enviously at his co-workers’ lunches
and said; “If you wife will make me one of
those things, I’ll buy it from you.” The man went home
and said to his wife “Tomorrow, make two sandwiches, one for me and
one for Hogan,” his co-worker’s name. So everyone started calling the
sandwich “hogans,” which eventually go shorten to hoagie.
(3) In 1925, Augustine DiCostanza
and his wife, Catherine, opened their grocery store called A.
DiCostanza's grocery store in Chester, Pennsylvania. According the
family lore, the grocery store stayed open well past midnight to
accomodiate the gamblers who held card games at the Palermo's Bar on
the same street. According to Augie DiCostanze, granddaughter of
Augustine and Catherine:
One summer afternoon back in 1925, one of the men
who cut the game deciced to take a break and he walked into the store
to get a pack of cigarettes. Mom as cooking the the back kitchen and
the aroma penentrated throughtout the store. The aroma apparently whet
the man's appetitie and he asked Mom if she would make him a sandwich.
"OK, pick out what kind of lunchmeat your want," she
said. He looked into the case and with an Itallian hand waving
gesture said: "Put everything you have in the case on
it." Mom took a long loaf of Vienna bread, sliced it
lengthwise and proceeded to put on all of the lunchmeat. . .
. "What are you cooking that smells so good?" the
hungry gambler asked. "I'm frying sweet and hot
peppers," she replied and without asking she put a few pieces
of the pepper on the sandwich. He left and an hour later the place was
filled with hungry gamlbers asking for a sandwich. Mom sold out of
everything that day. It was the beginning of a new creation, soon to
become know as the Hoagie.
(4) The last story says that during the
Depression (1929-1939), out-of-work Philadelphian Al DePalma went to Hog
Island near the naval shipyards to find work. When he saw the workers on
lunch bread eating their giant sandwiches, his first thought was,
"Those fellas look like a bunch of
hogs." Instead of applying for a job at the shipyard, he
opened a luncheonette that served these big sandwiches. He listed them
on the menu as “hoggies” named for the hogs he saw during that lunch
hour.
During the late 1930s, DePalma joined forces with Buccelli’s Bakery and
developed the perfect hoagie roll (an eight-inch roll that became the
standard for the modern-day hoagie). By World War II during the 1940s,
he turned the back room of his restaurant into a hoagie factory to
supply sandwiches to workers at the shipyard. DePalma became know as
“The King of Hoggies.” At some point after World War II, the “hoggie”
became the “hoagie.” It is said that because his customers kept calling
them hoagies, he changed the name.
Italian Sandwiches - In a world of hoagies, heroes, grinders
and submarines, Portland, Maine is known as the birthplace of the
Italian sandwich. It is considered Maine’s signature sandwich. Simply known as “Italians” to the people living in
Maine.
During the beginning of the
20th century, Italians were emigrating to New England in
large numbers to lay paving stones on streets, extend railway lines, and
work as longshoremen on the waterfront. Giovanni Amato, an Italian
immigrant, started selling fresh baked rolls from a pushcart to his
fellow Italian immigrants working on the docks of Portland, Maine. At
the workers' request, Giovanni added a little meat, cheese, and fresh
vegetables, and the "Italian Sandwich" was born. Nobody knows the
precise date of the first Italian Sandwich, but Amato's sandwich
historians say it had happened by 1903. By the 1920s, Amato had opened a sandwich
shop on India Street. In the 1950s, people would line up outside the
shop to get their Italians, and Amato's would sell 5,000 sandwiches on
Sundays.
Others may lay claim to inventing the Italian Sandwich, and there
are now dozens of imitators selling them. Today, almost every corner
grocery store in Southern Maine make their own version of this regional
delight. According to most Italian Sandwich afficionados, the best
Italian's in Maine are ALWAYS made in little Mom & Pop grocery
stores. And the size of the sandwich making area relative to the rest of
the store is a very good indication of the quality of
product.
The present day sandwich doesn't include
anything remotely Italian. Unlike most sandwiches, the Italian doesn't
have lettuce. Neither does it have mayo or mustard. Instead, it's topped
with salt and pepper, and a squirt of oil. The freshly baked buns are
soft, not crunchy (the sour pickles and soft rolls are what makes the
Italian Sandwich unique), and filled with veggies aplenty. The meat is
ham or salami (boiled ham was introduced somewhere in the 1960’s and is
as popular today as the original with salami), and American cheese. The
sandwich is also a bit messy. The oil on the traditional Italian makes
the sandwich a challenge to eat.
Roger Kirk, a former resident of Portland,
Maine, who currently resides in Fremont, NH sent me information on the
Italian Sandwich to include in this history. According to Roger: The sandwich is made with a one-foot-long soft roll
(not the hard sub roll), sliced 2/3 of the way through lengthwise (like
a hot dog roll) and pulled open for ingredient insertion. Wrapped in
white waxed paper, the locals unwrap one end and eat directly from the
wrap. As it is made today, it
has:
American cheese slices
Boiled ham slices
(originally was salami)
Onions
(chopped)
Tomato Green pepper
Sour pickles
(hand-sliced long and thin)
Black or Greek olive halves
(typically 4 per sandwich)
Oil (mixed olive and
vegetable oils)
Salt
& pepper
Po' Boy (poo-boy) - Also know as
Oyster Loaves. The first recorded American recipe for Oyster Loaves was
in Mrs. Mary Randolph’s 1828 cookbook called The Virginia Housewife
or Methodical Cook:
To Make Oyster
Loaves - Take little round loaves, cut off the tops, scrape
out all the crumbs, then put the oysters into a stew pan with the
crumbs that came out of the loaves, a little water, and a good lump of
butter; stew them together ten or fifteen minutes, then put in a
spoonful of good cream, fill your leaves, lay the bit of crust
carefully on again, set them in the oven to crisp. Three ar enough for
a side dish.
Po' Boy is the generic name for the standard New Orleans sandwich
made with French bread. They are considered a New Orleans institution.
Also called poor boy. Always made with French bread, po' boys can be
filled with fried oysters, shrimp, fish, soft-shelled crabs, crawfish,
roast beef and gravy, roast pork, meatballs, smoked sausage and more.
They are served either "dressed" with a full range of condiments
(usually mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomatoes) or "undressed" (plain). This
sandwich is purely American in its variety of sauces and condiments. It
is uniquely New Orleans because the oysters are local, as is the crisp
and airy bread.
(1) According to
some accounts, this sandwich was created by a Mme. Begue, owner of a
coffee stall in New Orleans' Old French Market in 1895. She took a
long, thin loaf of French bread, slit it in half lengthwise, buttered
it generously, sliced it in thirds or fourths (not cutting through the
bottom crust) and put a different fillling into each section The name
is said to derive from the pleas of hungry black youths who begged,
"Please give a sandwich to a po'
boy."
(2) Another predecessor was the Peacemaker Sandwich
(La Mediatrice), a loaf of French bread, split and buttered and filled
with fried oysters. The poetic name derives from the fact that
19th-century husbands, coming in late from a carouse or spree, would
carry one home to cushion a possible rough reception from the lady of
the house.
(3)
The generally excepted history is that the Po' Boy sandwich was
invented by two brothers, Clovis and Benjamin Martin, in 1929 at their
restaurant in the French Market. It is said, true or not, that this
sandwich extravaganza began during a local transit worker's strike.
The two brothers took pity on those "poor boys" and began offering
sandwiches made from leftovers to any workers who came to their
restaurant's back door at the end of the day. For five cents, a
striker could buy a sandwich filled with gravy and trimmings (end
pieces from beef roasts) or gravy and sliced potatoes.
Soon the sandwich, which quickly became known as the po' boy, was
being filled with seafood, most notably fried oysters and fried shrimp.
In those distant days, shellfish was abundant and cheap. The affluent
joined the crowd because, at lunch or snack time, a po' boy filled with
oysters was quicker to consume and easier to digest than one filled with
roast beef.
Submarine Sandwich – It is a
king-sized sandwich on an Italian loaf of bread approximately 12 inches
long an 3 inches wide, filled with boiled ham, hard salami, cheeses,
lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and sometimes flavored with garlic and
oregano. It is thought that the original concept of these sandwiches
came from the Italians who immigrated to New York in the late 1800s and
brought with them their favorite Italian Sandwich recipes.
1910 - The family of Dominic Conti (1874-1954)
claims he was the first to use the name, submarine sandwich. Angela
Zuccaro, granddaughter of Dominic, related the following
information:
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 spices, salt, and pepper. The sandwich started with a
layer of cheese and ended with a layer was cheese (this was so the
bread wouldn’t get soggy).
My mother often told me about
how my grandfather came to name his sandwich the Submarine. She
remembered the incident very well, as she was 16 years old at the
time. She related that when grandfather went to see the Holland I* in
1927, the raised submarine hull that was put on display in Westside
Park, he said, “It looks like the sandwich I sell at my
store.” From that day on, he called his sandwich the
“submarine.” People came from miles around to buy one of my
Grandfather’s subs.
* In 1927, the first
experimental 14-foot submarine, called Holland I, was recovered and
salvaged from the Passaic River. The Holland I was built in 1878 by
John Holland (1841-1914). The submarine hull was scuttled in 1878 in
the Upper Passaic River after an exhaustive series of test and
everything of value was removed. Holland figured that it was cheaper to
start afresh rather than take her out of the water and put her in
storage. The hull is
currently on display at the Paterson Museum in Paterson, New Jersey.
1926 - Many historians claim the
first submarine sandwich was served in New London, Connecticut in 1926.
During World War II, when soldiers from the nearby submarine base in
Groton, ate them by the thousands.
Sources:
DiCostanza's Italian
Sandwiches, by Augie DiCostanza, http://dicostanzas.com/About.asp,
an internet web site.
Hoagie History, http://hoagie/ an internet web
site.
I'll Have What
They're Having - Legendary Local Cuisine, by Linda Stradley,
published ThreeForks, Guilford, Connecticut, 2002.
In search of . . . The
definition of Italian, by Andy King, The Portland Phoenix, October 2003,
http://www.portlandphoenix.com/food/dining/documents/03199201.asp,
an internet web site.
Pursuing the
Cascade Model, by Professor William Labov, University of
Pennsylvania, November 25, 2002, http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/Papers/PCM.html
an internet web site.
Rare Bits - Unusual
Origins of Popular Recipes, by Patricia Bunning Stevens, publsined
by Ohio University Press, 1998.
Real Italian Food To
Go, The "Real Italian" Explained, Amato’s Sandwich Shop, http://www.amatos.com/about_01.html,
an internet web site.
Roger Kirk, a former resident of Portland, Maine, who currently
resides in Fremont, NH.
The Foods of
Philadelphia, by Mark Glicksman, http://www.libertynet.org/bgmap/foods.html,
an internet web site.
The New Orleans
Cookbook, by Rima & Richard Collin, published by Alfred A.
Knofp, 1975.
The Virginia Housewife or Methodical Cook, By Mrs.
Mary Randolph, originally published in 1828; Stereotype Edition, with
Amendments and Additions, Baltimore: Published by Plaskitt & Cugle;
Antique American Books, 1984.
Truth, or just a
lot of baloney? by Ralph Vigoda, Inquirer Staff Writer,
Word Of The Day, http://www.parrotproductions.com/,
an internet web site.
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