An all-time classic is bologna on white with ketchup or mayo, but not both. Also, you have to take a handful of those thin, greasy, no-name potato chips and throw them on there and crunch them into the sandwich. A nice twist on this is substituting pickle loaf for the bologna.

Hmmmm...no bananas, eh? Well, there goes my 2nd favorite childhood sandwich. :o)

I have to disagree:

PBJ + bigasstall glass of milk.

BLT's with the bacon stacked so thick, the lettuce and tomato are optional. Lotsa mayo of course, lightly toasted white bread. Pork Fat!!!

I know this will gross some people out, but I have always had a palette for...get ready...

Pimento loaf sandwiches. Add in mayo, pickles, sourdough bread and some brown mustard. mmMMm.

And of course my all time favorite:

Braunschweiger: on a sub loaf, with cheddar and monterey cheese slices, banana peppers, mayo, brown mustard and a splash of tabasco.

damn, I just ate, and now i am hungry again.

grrr.

I shudder at the thought, but my favorite childhood sandwich was ... Peanut Butter and Mayonaise. I apologize to those of you who just threw up in your moths a little. My other favorite was Peanut Butter and Lettuce ... awesome crunchy goodness!

BTW: How did you keep the Wonder Bread from tearing under the 'weight' of the Peanut Butter? It had to have been smooth, right, Rachel?

We also had one of those hot sandwich maker dealies where you would put the sandwich in and close the lid and in a couple of minutes you'd have really hot and tasty (and sliced diagonally) sandwiches. I always made home versions of pizza Hot Pockets with white bread, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. Sooooooooo good. Especially if you brushed the outside of the bread with some garlic butter before cooking. *drool*

BLT - my wife found something called Bagel Bread and it makes the perfect BLT.

Toasted Cheese sandwiches, especially in winter.

A fire roasted brat on a bun with mustard - washed down with German beer. Thank you, Heidelberg.

My childhood sandwhich sounds a little gross, but i swear its delicious. I dare everyone to try it, great and simple: cheese and jam.
Best with a good extra sharp cheddar and blackberry jam. Try it you'll like it, especially with chocolate milk.

A nice MLT - mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe *smacks lips* they're so perky, I love that

I'm kinda partial to pastrami & cheddar on rye (light or dark, I don't care). After that, I'll take a Monte Cristo, which, being deep fried, shouldn't even be legal. Then again, I live in Nevada, where everything that's bad for you is legal.

Best sandie I've ever had?

Sliced roast beef, dijon mustard, Brie, all on a crusty baguette. Oh hell yeah.

And yeah, a tall glass of cold milk goes best with a PB & J (creamy PB and strawberry preserves, thank you very much), and for chips, it's gotta be Ruffles sour cream & onion.

Even as a kid, I've never really liked white bread. I've always been a whole grain guy, and I'm not even a hippie!

Whoever suggested baloney and ketchup really needs to get a job so they can afford better ingredients for their sandwiches. Seriously, I'll be living in a cardboard box and dumpster diving before I ever eat something that disgusting.

Yeah, JC Corbett is right-- A Monte Cristo is a helluva sandwich. The best were at Bennigans (we don't have them here in Vegas, so sad).

It was like eating a ham donut!

The Monte Cristo is so damn good I'm not surprised it's outlawed in a few states. I can only put down half of one before sugar shock sets in.

Here in the South it's all about the BBQ. Pulled pork all the way.

We wuz po folk when I was a kid, so mom never had lunchmeats and other fancy makings in the fridge. But there was always homemade whole wheat bread and jars of home canned bread&butter pickles. Together with a generous dollop of mayonnaise and sometimes a slice of cheddar cheese, that was one *good* sandwich.

Pan fried bologna on white bread, with a layer of Maurice Lenell Butterscotch cookies (http://www.ecomallbiz.com/lenell/company/) (they're the light colored pentagonal ones in the photo). Yellow mustard optional.

Unfortunately they don't seem to be available for online order. :-(

zuk

"We also had one of those hot sandwich maker dealies where you would put the sandwich in and close the lid and in a couple of minutes you'd have really hot and tasty (and sliced diagonally) sandwiches.

Posted by G Fresh [TypeKey Profile Page] | August 3, 2007 1:22 PM "

Yeah, we had one too.

Did your's pinch the edges of the bread together?

My favorite?

Wait for it.......

Hot applesauce sandwich.

I think my Mom showed that one to me.

But she was a child of poverty AND the Depression.

Rachel,

Good sammiches, all. But the best sandwiches are po'boys down in New Orleans. The real French bread is wonderful and whatever you put on it has to be a lot and messy - goodness is measured by the number of napkins you use.

I also think Philly cheese steak sandwiches are fantastic - the real ones from Philadelphia, not the fake ones you can get around the country.

But...since you are clearly focusing on sandwiches you can make at home .. try a peanut butter and onion sandwich. Creamy PB and white onion. My mom told me about this when I was in high school and, strangely enough, the tastes go together (if you like onions to begin with).

You still rock. ("Eye of the tiger, baby.")

mike

Rachel,

Good sammiches, all. But the best sandwiches are po'boys down in New Orleans. The real French bread is wonderful and whatever you put on it has to be a lot and messy - goodness is measured by the number of napkins you use.

I also think Philly cheese steak sandwiches are fantastic - the real ones from Philadelphia, not the fake ones you can get around the country.

But...since you are clearly focusing on sandwiches you can make at home .. try a peanut butter and onion sandwich. Creamy PB and white onion. My mom told me about this when I was in high school and, strangely enough, the tastes go together (if you like onions to begin with).

You still rock. ("Eye of the tiger, baby.")

mike

"Did yours pinch the edges of the bread together?"

Oh yeah and it also put the grill marks down both sides of the sandwich.

I tell you what, a PB&J (with some chocolate syrup if I could sneak it in when my mom wasn't looking) run through the sandwich maker was amazing. Especially if you sprinkled it with a little powdered sugar after it was done.

sorry about the double post. I am on a government computer and it took so long to do anything that I stupidly pushed the "post" button again.

mike

Someone else already mentioned braunschweiger, and that reminded me of when I was a poor kid, and we used to eat that stuff all the time. Didn't realize it then, but we ate it because it was cheap.

So anyway...not too long ago, I was at a fancy event where they had some sort of pate, and sure as shit...it tasted just like braunschweiger. I wonder if rich people know that they're paying way too much for their braunschweiger?

There's a family deli here in Indy that used to make the best thin-sliced corned beef sandwich on a egg bun. Add a little swiss cheese and I was in heaven.

Unfortunately, the grandson who owns the deli now has raised prices and lowered quality to the point where I now look forward to our annual visit to 3G's Deli in Delray Beach, Florida, for a similar sandwich. Add a cup of matzah ball soup. Definitely heaven.

I love me some sandwiches too.

Some favorites:
braunschweiger on white with mayo and onions

Clean-out-the-fridge grilled cheese (i just put a little of each kind of cheese we have in the fridge, swiss, cheddar, brie, feta, it's all good) with a thin layer of mayo and super thinly sliced onions on the inside, and then butter and sprinkle the outside with parmesan before frying. Add a bowl of tomato soup, and you've got the perfect rainy day meal.

I'm totally with you on the crunchy peanut butter/jam/white bread sandwiches. I swear, when I can't sleep at night, I make myself one and eat it with a glass of milk and I sleep like a baby. Maybe not the healthiest cure for insomnia, but it works every time.

I grew up a huge PB&J fan (Crunchy Skippy and Welch's Grape)--so much so that for my 8-year-old have-anything-you-want birthday dinner, I subjected my family to a platter of said PB&J.

As an adult, my sister-in-law introduced me to PB&T--peanut butter and tomato. Tomatoes are fruit, so the effect is the same as jelly/jam. A few fresh sliced tomatoes on a bed of peanut butter, on thick-sliced wheat bread. MMMMM.

Lastly--real grilled cheese (not squashed, smashed, melted cheese) are delectable.

braunswieger (liver cheese for you veggie types!) cut 1/2" thick with white onoins and mayonause. Digger and Sunny would like 'em to!!!

Dear Rachel,

I'm thrilled, THRILLED! I say, that you are blogging again!!!! I so enjoy your snarky, bitchy, in your face, take no prisoners style (and I mean that in the best way, really). I have to tell you, that I have not laughed harder, before or since, at anything I've read on the web since I read your 'Six Inch Wood' post. My sides were killing me, not to mention my tear ducts. So again, I say "YAY" (thanks for that term too) that you're blogging again!!!!!!!!

Now to the subject at hand--sammiches. Honey-oat bread, lightly toasted, Miracle Whip, crispy bacon, tomato (only real ones in summer), crispy lettuce and Vidalia onions. (A BLOT.) A close second: egg salad on soft wheat made with lots of relish, a touch of brown mustard and of course, Miracle Whip. (Can't handle mayo since I used it to make my hair silky in high school. Ewwww!)

One more time.......

YAY!

Liverwurst and cream cheese on good ol' white bread. Gross sounding, but tasty. Peanut butter and cream cheese too, except you have to eat fast before your arteries harden. Oh, and cream cheese and smoked salmon on pumpernickel.

I guess cream cheese and anything is goo-ood!

Pork brain sandwiches - my son went to college in southern IN, so I heard about these. Locals thought they were good. Too Hannibal Lector for me.

For a bad sandwich, Wonder Bread with sugar cubes pressed in, stuck together with honey.

Sorry all. It's summer and tomato sandwiches rule! White bread, homegrown tomatoes, hellman's (best foods) mayo and salt. OK, I am a bit older and I add fresh ground pepper.

Sorry, mine has bananas in it, but I'll offer you this instead.

Yay, Sparrow!! Another liverwurst and cream cheese fan. I thought I was the only one.

Liverwurst, cream cheese, sliced avocado, alfalfa sprouts, chopped pepperocinis on
SF style sour dough or dark rye.

Second best. Dry salami, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles or pepperocinis, lettuce on sour dough.

BTW: I love your blog. I laugh out loud (LOL to you younger guys) every time I read it.

Some of my favorites (in no particular order):
* Lebanon bologna and cheese (on white bread of course! I'm a child of the 70s)
* Reuben. And don't skimp on the sauerkraut.
* Ham and swiss. When I was a kid I liked to add a layer of Fritos in the middle.
* Chipped ham and yellow mustard on Martin's potato buns, with a side order of Gibble's potato chips.

Oddly enough, when I was a kid I used to spread Miracle Whip on white bread and eat that too. WTF was I thinking?! Ugh!

From my childhood: Toasted cheese sandwich and tomato soup when it's below zero outside.

I can close my eyes and feel it.

Man, all kinds of good sandwiches and memories here. I've actually had most of them, and it's strange to see the toasted applesauce mentioned, I thought my grandmother made it up.

Another for the list...roast beef, swiss and sweet onion on an onion bagel. Warm it until the cheese melts, add the onion and put it back together, condiments are optional.

I gotta go with Reubens (corned beef, swiss, sauerkraut, 1000 Island, grilled on rye or any bread you like) for my all-time favorite. They made them at the first real job I ever had, and got hooked. Hard to find em anymore, sauerkraut appreciation is a lost art.

Elvis' favorite, grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches (made like grilled cheese but with different insides), gets honorable mention.

OOOOH, I FORGOT!! Rare roast beef and melted mozzerella on garlic bread -- HEAVEN!! And grilled cheese with crunchy bacon -- MORE HEAVEN!!!

And nice Princess Bride reference, Instinct! Have fun storming the castle...

Alternate layers of thin sliced cucumber and sweet onion on white bread with butter salt & pepper to taste good stuff

Goddammit.
Goddammit.
Goddammit.

Almost everything that you people just listed...I can't eat.

I want to, but I can't do it.

I come from a family of big eaters and I'm afraid to eat anything that deviates from the standard rabbit-food diet. When I was a kid I used to eat all kinds of deliciously unhealthy crap, and now that I finally got myself back into shape I have to watch all you bastards talk about all the delectable things that I can't have.

I'm so jealous I'm practically cross-eyed.

Easy-peasey grillded cheesey

Butter one side of a slice of rye bread. Lay that side down in a med-hot skillet, add a dollop of mayo to the 'up' side. Add a few slices of your favorite cheese (Muenster for me) and then a layer of thin sliced sweet white onion (walla walla or vidalia).
Put some mayo on another slice of rye bread, lay it on top of the on-yon. About now it's time to use your spatula to lift the bottom of the sammich and throw in some more butter. Turn the sammich over and let that virginal top breadslice suck up that sizzling ooey-gooey butter. Turn the whole thing once more in a few minutes (add more butter if your heart can stand it) and eat it while it's hot with sweet gerkins and cold beer. Make mine a pilsner urquell!

Carl's sammich
Dry-rub and then grill a pork tenderloin or 2 - when done, let it cool and slice 'on the bias'. While the meat cooks find room to roast 2 or 3 red bell peppers on the BBQ -turn 'em often and go for a nice roasted char. When the peppers are done, let them cool in a paper bag for 10 minutes or so then pull off the burnt skin. I tear the pepper into big chunks over a bowl and save the juice. Add a little vinegarette to the juice/peppers. Now, slice a red onion.

Rub a peeled whole garlic clove over a fresh baguette until the garlic is all smushed into the crust...now place the bread over the coals and turn it every 10 seconds or so until it's crispy and you can smell the garlic. Slice it in half, lengthwise. Scoop out some of the top bread to make room (eat it! it's the cooks reward).
Spread spicy mustard on the bottom slab of bread and lay slices of grilled pork on top of that. Sprinkle with black pepper and salt. Now pile on red onion slices and hunks of roasted red pepper. Drizzle some of the vinegarette/pepperjuices on top of that, and then lay slices of white american cheese (or brie, I'm easy going) on top. Now mash the top breadslice down onto the sammich, and cut chunks about 4 or 5 inches long for yourself. Cut a bigger slab for me and call me when it's ready.
We'll need german or french potato salad, cole slaw (rachel's thumb-proof recipe) and more cold beer or lightly chilled beaujolais. Keep a defibrillator on hand.

Two words. Butter. Sugar.

Enjoy.

Mrs Baird's Buttered Split-Top Wheat, thinly sliced chicken breast, thinly sliced white onion, leaf of iceburg lettuce, thin slices of home-grown tomatoes, bread-and-butter pickles and Best Maid salad dressing.
Add some Fritos and sweet iced tea with lemon.

Consume.

Swoon.

I didn't realize how much I hated sandwiches until I read all your entries.

I know.. I can't believe it either. What kind of a freak am I? I hope you dont kick me off your blog-roll.

Well.. outside of the most delicious leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches. Not a big fan.

In Australia, and lesser Commonwealth countries, children's parties often feature "Fairy Bread", which is about the worst possible thing you can give a kid if you want him/her to behave and/or grow up healthy. It is quite simple to make, thusly: (a) Take a slice of white bread; (b) Cover it thick in margarine; (c) Douse the margarine in sugar and sprinkles (Yes, the kind you put on ice cream). You can feel your teeth decaying as you eat it.

I have to be careful with braunschweiger - sometimes it doesn't even make it to the bread...

But when it does, it's white bread, Miracle Whip, the braunschweiger, and a slice of Velveeta.

Reading this post and the comments reminded me of some books I read a long time ago. I thought I was a sandwich nut but found that I had a ways to go after reading Lawrence Sanders "..Deadly Sin" series. A subplot running through all of the books was Edward Delaney's quest for the perfect sandwich.

Yay, and here I thought I would gross many people out with my love for Braunschweiger/liverwurst.

I must go out and get me a roll tomorrow, and some white onions....dang, out of banana peppers too....(writes it on list)

I can't believe I forgot my childhood favorite, bread, butter n sugar.

I enjoy a good varity of Sandwiches. (or is it sandwichs??? I cannot remember, grammer, argh!) anyhow, I like a PB & J with a big tall cod glass of cow juice. (hehe... slang terms)

Do ya'll have Meijer's in Texas? Anyway, they've got a deli over there, (I have one about 1/2 mile from my house here)anyhow, sometimes my dad will go over there about 30 mins to closing and buy all the stuff marked half off, and we'll have various meats coming out our ears for a month or so around here.

I also like to take hot dogs and slice 'em in two and have a hot dog sandwich with cheese. with mustard.

and of course, my favorite indulgence, Bagels with cream cheese and hot dogs.... which I ate tonight. for a late night snack...

I had one of those, some small precut carrots, some cottage cheese and a banana, I'm not gonna know whether to shit, scream or go blind! :-) LOL! and I chased it down with a big old bottle of WATER! and on a Saturday night, no less!

Excitin' fella ain't I? ;-P

-Me

egads, typo's up the wazoo!!! But I think I got my point across......

Childhood favorites: PB and thinly sliced apple on honeywheat bread. And leftover Thanksgiving turkey on potato rolls with cheddar cheese and Famous Sauce.

Today's fave: rare roast beef on a crusty parmesan roll with asiago cheese, crispy lettuce, purple onions and a dollop of horseradish for zing.

Peanut butter and pancake syrup. Mix in enough syrup to reach a slightly runny consistency. White bread. Milk.
Probably enough sugar to send Eeyore into an epileptic fit. I can't believe my mom let me eat those things.

I have to go with Birdman and Rickbert here, it's hard to beat a good Reuben.

No bread can hold a candle to pumpernickel. It is the most perfect bread ever made. My mom makes it with beer in the batter for beer pumpernickel. Yeah, my mom makes the best bread in the world.

Best meat to go on said beer pumpernickel is honey ham, with two slices of bacon, and then melted swiss. Toast the bread. MMMMMMMM

Hardliner,

It's wonderful to see that Rachel has come up with a subject that you can sink you teeth into (figuratively and literally) without devolving into a white hot seething ball of vituperous ranting so intense that Karl Marx might remark "Boy is he a leftist sumbich or what?". Well, that is if he weren't currently taking a dirt nap.

Isn't it so much more fun to play nice?

Oh and make mine thin sliced smoked turkey on honey wheat bread with aged Swiss cheese, a couple of strips of bacon, leaf lettuce, tomato, avacado and alfalfa sprouts with Kraft real mayo. A Claussen pickle spear on the side and a nice pale ale to accompany it all makes it complete. I know it sounds a little west-coastie but I like it.

I love a really good Reuben.

There's a few that really take me back to my child hood though. I made this one again recently and it was as good as I remembered-
basically take a tin of corned beef, mix with chopped American cheese and chopped onion, add a bit of mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce - mix it all up, put on hamburger buns, wrap them in foil and toast them in the oven for about 20 minutes until melty and crunchy. Email's in my profile if you want the recipe. I think we probably drank cherry koolaid with these as a kid, but they go really well with my homebrew stout now.

When I'm having a really bad day and just want to feel like I'm five again, nothing beats a Peanut Butter and Fluff with a mug of Hot Chocolate.

How about fried Spam with catsup on white bread?

Braunschweiger is not the same as liverwurst - it has bacon in it. Finally found a local cheap brand where I can actually taste the bacon, and it never makes it to the sandwich.

I agree that sliced bananas don't belong on bread. Wait until past ripe, and then spread the banana.

I'm not much of a cook, so my usual sandwiches are some variation on cold cuts (bologna, turkey, salami, etc.), some kind of cheese, lettuce, on wheat bread with either mayonnaise or mustard. Yawn. I've been eating some combination of the above for years and they're just not exciting anymore.

I love Reubens but I only get them when I go to restaurants, which isn't often.

At the risk of hijacking the thread, my favorite websurfing snack is Fritos and peanut butter. You have to use the Fritos Scoops. Regular Fritos are too fragile for peanut butter. As for the peanut butter, I prefer Skippy Creamy, but feel free to experiment.

rickl,
In-ter-ven-tion.
Step away from the keyboard.
Buy a pound of hamburger, some HH and a pack of buns. If you want to go all gormay, you can toast the buns before you ladle the HH and melt the cheese on top.
Just a thought.
d4

This may be a little weird -- but so's some of the rest of the stuff you lot came up with, too.

PB&J was always too sweet for my tastes. My family did peanut butter and sweet pickle relish. Surprisingly good; most people I've actually persuaded to try it, liked it.

Rachel,

You created a monster with THIS post!

Pickles,???
I've never trusted women who like pickles.
I am aways afraid they'd also aquire a taste
for stoggies & Jack

Now women who like that exilir of the gods
Mountain Dew, they are closer to the angels.

"Peanut butter and pancake syrup." - Daddyquatro

As a kid, the Peanuts comic strip introduced me to Goop. I see yours as a variation on this, but feel free to see Goop as a variation or your recipe. Peanut butter and honey. Mixed with more peanut butter than honey, creamy but not running. Suitable for sandwiches or for dipping with slices of apple.

Rachel,

You know, I actually meant to make that last comment on your "eye of the tiger" post, but who knows, the way this "sandwich post" is