The invention of the sandwich is popularly credited to John Montague, Fourth Earl of Sandwich. Its origins. Go much further back than this, however. Another common belief comes from the Jewish tradition— that the sandwich was invented by Hillel the Elder in the first century B.C.E. During Passover, Hillel the Elder's invention is commemorated in the text: "This is what Hillel did when the Temple existed: he used to enwrap the Paschal lamb, the matzo, and the bitter herbs and eat them as one." At this point of the remembrance service, the participants do likewise.
Evidence suggests that the sandwich may go back even further than this, to the days of the Hittite Empire, hundreds of years before. There are records of soldiers of the empire being issued with meat between slices of bread as their rations.
Today's sandwich comes in a multitude of varieties from international cuisines. Although there has been some controversy over what constitutes a sandwich (resulting in one court ruling in the United States), it is generally understood to be a meal made from two slices of bread and a filling.
The Earl of Sandwich's part in the story, apart from giving the meal its name, lay in popularizing the sandwich in England in the eighteenth century. It is believed that Montague liked the sandwich because he could eat it without getting grease on his fingers from meat, making it a suitable snack to eat while playing cards. Whether or not this is true is debatable, but certainly after this time the sandwich became the dominant lunchtime meal in England. Being easy to prepare, portable, and adaptable to limitless variations, the sandwich has never lost its popularity and can now be bought from thousands of dedicated outlets and chains across the world.
