There are a few things more universally loved than a good sandwich. There are
just so many options available to you, and countless amounts of regional speciality sandwiches
almost anywhere in the world that you travel. If you strip it down to
the basics of simply any sort of filling between two pieces of baked dough,
you could even open up the conversation to include burghers, hot dogs, schwarmers,
raps, tortillas, possibly even cull zones at a stretch, and the
list goes on and on. We as humans love the simplicity and deliciousness of
having something to hold all of our favorite fillings together. But there was a
time in our history when the venerable sandwich was used not for sustenance or delight
in a tasty meal, but rather as a loophole with which to get around
some rather limiting laws. These are the bizarre but true stories from history that
in some way involved food. I'm Nick Charlie Key, and this is the
fantastic history of food. One of today's sponsors is Athletic Greens. So what
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Modern day sandwiches using slices of bread on either side of a tasty filling
can arguably be traced back to as recently as eighteenth century Europe, but we
know that bread or similar baked goods have been placed under over or sometimes both
meat and vegetable fillings for centuries, if not millennia. Evidence of bread being
used to scoop up leftovers or wrap food in has been found in numerous ancient
cultures worldwide. The softer versions of the Jewish unleavened flat bread matsa has for
ages been used during Passover in the same way as we would use a modern
day rap. There are accounts of the ancient Jewish sage Hillel the Elder using
this method to wrap up some meat from the sacrificial passover lamb, alongside some
bitter herbs. Similar accounts are found anywhere from Morocco to Ethiopia and India,
where the predominant method of baking bread was to bake it into a flat round,
differing significantly from the traditional European method of baking bread in loaves. During
the European Middle Ages, bread was cut into thick slabs called trenches, and
essentially used as a plate upon which to pile your other food. Once the
meal was done, the thick bread slices, now soaked with food juices and
covered with food remnants, were squashed together and then given to beggars. While
we all know the saying beggars can't be choosers, it is worth noting that,
as generous of an act as this may seem, the reason the diners
didn't usually eat this themselves is that the thick slabs of bread were usually so
stale as to almost be inedible. One of the more recent precursors to the
so called official creation of the sandwich could be found in the Netherlands in the
late seventeenth century. To be exact, in many taverns across the land,
thick slabs of beef would hang from the rafters, and when a patron was
hungry, the barkeep maidservant or someone of that ilk would carve thin slices of
meat off the main slab and give it to the hungry patron atop a piece
of buttered bread. Essentially, this was the Dutch version of an open faced
sandwich, but it was one that had not yet reached England. The sandwich
as we have come to know it to day is said to have its origins
amongst gambling men. It began appearing in the uppercrusted elements of society as simple
late night snack whilst they were engaged in some or other activity. It is,
however, formerly named after John Montague, the fourth Earl of Sandwich,
who used to enjoy playing long sessions of card games late into the night.
His particular favorite was cribbage, and he would frequently attend games at the local
public gambling houses. Having no desire to leave the table simply to eat a
meal, he would call for his man servant to bring him salted beef between
two pieces of toasted bread. It was seen as ingenious and revolutionary by his
peers, as it allowed him to keep on gambling with one hand while eating
with the other. He didn't need to stop to use a knife or a
fork, and the toasted bread stopped his fingers from making the cards greasy after
eating meat with his bare hands. This new method of eating exploded in popularity
in London, and the earl of sandwich's name became forever etched into history.
It would not stay merely the secret of the UK elite, but it would
spread rapidly across Spain and England's working classes as the rise of industrialization meant workers
working long, grueling hours needed fast, portable, and relatively cheap meals.
By eighteen fifty, it is said that at least seventy street vendors were selling
ham sandwiches daily just in London alone. The Dutch, having initially figured out
half a sandwich, closed the loop, so to say, and with this
new fangled idea of two pieces of bread. However, they also chose to
predominantly serve liver and salt beef sandwiches in their rapidly expanding network of sandwich bars.
The United States initially took a different stance from Europe, styling the sandwich
as a gourmet luxury meal, stuffed with decad and fillings and usually only consumed
at dinner times. However, they could not hold out for long. As
the twentieth century rolled around and bread became more and more of a household staple.
The sandwich then took on the same easy, cheap persona as it had
done across the Mediterranean, and it was here in the United States and New
York, to be specific, that the sandwich would evolve yet again into something
else entirely. Stick around after the break, we're going to find out just
how our beloved sandwich would become a bartender's loophole to get around something known as
the Rain's Law. Many of you may not know this about me, but
before I was a podcaster, I was a cookbook author, and specifically one
that focused on low carb and keto recipes. You see, I was diagnosed
with metabolic syndrome almost a decade ago, and my personal experience of keto was
amazing. I know it's not everyone's cup of team, but it's always good
to know more about what's out there and what your options are. And I
can't think of a better place to start if you're wanting to learn more about
living a low carb lifestyle than listening to the Heel Nourish Grow podcast. It
provides practical keto tips and tricks that you can use to improve your keto experience.
It's hosted by Cheryl McColgan, and the podcast shares interviews with people that
have been living a low carb lifestyle while experiencing improved health and weight loss.
Most of the guests have had health problems like myself, or a history that
has led them to eating lower carb than the standard America and diet. For
some, this means they talk about keito on the podcast, but other types
of eating are also discussed. These interviews with keito experts, doctors and physicians,
and a whole lot more when it comes to health and wellness related information
that supports the keto lifestyle. So you can listen today on Heel Nourished Grow
dot com or on whichever podcast platform you usually listen to. Near the end
of the nineteenth century, in eighteen ninety six, to be exact, something
known as the Rain's Law was enacted on the first of April, and unfortunately
for those affected, this was no April Fool's prank. At the time,
New York City was home to more than eight thousand bars. In his book
Island of Vice, Richard Zach's writes the worst of them were seedy, dimly
lit, all smelling, rickety chaired, stale beard dives, catering to vagrants,
shipless sailors, incompetent thieves, and aging prostitutes. Now that has to
be one of the greatest burns of all time. The rains Law, however,
was designed almost entirely to put these sorts of establishments out of business.
This law didn't just appear out of nowhere, however, and it was a
part of a larger moral movement aimed at cleaning up the city. Public drunkenness
was at an all time high, and the city's existing Sabbath laws banning the
sale of alcohol on Sundays were hardly, if at all, enforced. The
Republican Party was not a major force in the largely Democratic constituency of New York,
but they did have a young, up and coming star named Theodore Roosevelt,
who at this time was serving as the President of the Police Commission.
He was one of the new rains Law's staunchest supporters and said that it would
solve whatever remained of the problem of bars not closing on Sunday Day. The
Reigns Law became a conflict of cultures and class that spread to national proportions.
Protestants and middle class families were generally in favor of the new law and saw
it as a step in the right direction for the overall improvement of society.
They were, however, met with fierce opposition from the city's German and Irish
immigrants, who saw it as a spiteful act of repression in a time when
workers still predominantly worked Monday to Saturday. This meant that the average laborer was
now being limited as to how they themselves could spend their one day off per
week. In a somewhat surprising turn of events, the city's large Jewish population
was also up in arms about the new law, being that they in fact
celebrated their Sabbath the day before on Saturdays. Unsurprisingly, lower income residents cried
foul when a loop hole designed almost explicitly it seems to placate the rich meant
that the taverns and bars frequented by the working class were disproportionately affected because this
loophole allowed any establishment with ten or more rooms for rent to serve alcohol on
Sundays as long as it was accompanied by a meal, and in the world's
least surprising twist, It just so happened that wealthy New Yorkers tended to dine
out at the city's fanciest hotels when every Sunday, because this was also the
one day a week that their live in servants had off. By contrast,
it was the working class taverns that took the greatest hit. Not only were
they now prohibited from opening on Sundays, usually their busiest day of the week,
but the annual liquor license went up from eighty dollars a year to over
eight hundred. It also stipulated that bars could not open within two hundred feet
of a school or a church, and the drinking age and look, I'll
probably give this one to them was raised from sixteen to eighteen in a somewhat
comical manner. It also forbade bars from closing their blinds on the Sunday,
just in case they might sneak in a customer or two pass the now watchful
eye of any patrolling policeman. And while it seemingly left an overtly wide loophole
for the rich, it didn't account for the resourcefulness of the common bar owner.
As previously mentioned, Sundays were their best trading days, and bar owners
weren't going to give up without a fight. Within a week of the law
being enacted, owners all across the city were cheerfully testing the laws new limits.
A suspicious number of so called private clubs began opening up, and bars
began handing out membership cards to all of their regulars. On top of that,
any spare spaces in a bar's building were hastily converted into the requisite number
of rooms meant to meet the laws requirements. Attics, basements, even large
broom closets now became bespoke rooms for rent should their clientele so desired. For
those establishments with little to no room to spare, they would cut deals with
neighboring lodging houses to combine forces. Being that the law stipulated that alcohol could
only be served alongside a meal, tablecloths were now thrown over pool tables to
create a de facto dining room table. And lastly, and for us most
importantly of all, they started serving customers the easiest, cheapest, and dare
I say most reusable of all meals, the rains sandwich. You see,
law enforcement itself had clearly stipulated what they believed constituted a meal, saying,
we would not say that a cracker itself is a complete meal, but we
would consider that a sandwich would be. With this knowledge in hand, bar
owners set to work. Whenever a customer would order an ale or a whiskey,
the waiter or the bartender would bring it with the now famous rains sandwich.
They might be wondering what was on it. Surely it couldn't be worse
than the Dutch favorite of liver and beef. Right well, in a sense,
yes and no. You see, the rain sandwich was the bar owner's
humorous loophole to get them around the law. Most taverns didn't even have a
kitchen space to even prepare sandwiches, and so a workaround would have to be
developed, and in no time at all it was. You see, the
law stipulated that alcohol had to be served alongside a meal, which we know
the law says can be something as simple as a sandwich. What the law
didn't specify, however, was that the customer had to eat that meal,
and so with each alcoholic beverage served, the rain sandwich would make its way
to customer after customer. More often than not, the sandwich was barely even
edible, and if it was still technically edible, it definitely wouldn't have been
very good for whoever consumed it. Some were described as a desiccated ruin of
dust laden bread accompanied by mummified ham or cheese. For these establishments, less
concerned with pretense, they would serve patrons a chunk of rubber between two old
slices of bread, and it would be hurriedly taken back seconds after it arrived
to be paired with the next beverage order and taken to another customer's table.
It wasn't long, however, before the reformers caught wind of what was going
on and challenged this behavior in a court of law. In what must have
been one of the truly great judgments of all time. The practice was upheld.
You see, the law itself was sound. The bar owners were now
doing nothing technically illegal. The police and the initial court ruling had created a
laughable situation ripe for bending the law. It seems Governor Rains and his allies
had seriously underestimated just how far New Yorkers would go for a drink. When
word of the ruling being upheld came to the people, it became a clear
turning point in the saga. As a whole, so called rains hotels began
popping up everywhere, and within a year more than one thousand and five hundred
of them had opened, and in New York City alone. In Brooklyn,
which was still considered a separate municipality at the time, they went from having
just thirteen registered hotels to over eight hundred in the space of just six months.
Not to mention the rapid expansion of the so called social clubs. In
what would become a decidedly unwelcome consequence for the reformers in all of this was
that drinking actually increased among the population now that soft beds were just a few
feet away in every establishment. Laborers could now drink to excess and not have
to worry about making it home. And while the Rain's Law struggle continued into
the twentieth century, it eventually began to peter out as more and more people
took advantage of the loopholes. But it was this unfortunate failure of a scheme
to curb drinking that would lead to its much harsher, stricter, an entirely
teetotaling successor. When in nineteen nineteen, full blown prohibition became the law of
the land, and with this new reality, the knee for the rain sandwich
no longer existed. So the next time you're buttering your bread, preparing your
feelings and salivating at the delight that is to come, just be grateful that
it's not simplear chunk of rubber nestled between two slices stale, moldy bread.
This show is made entirely by me, Nick Charlie Key, with our theme
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