An Earl of Sandwich at a Blue Baker

Over several years of patronizing Blue Baker (Austin), I'd occasionally glanced at wall artwork—mostly food items and an Earl of Sandwich.

Blue Baker's painting of the Earl of Sandwich conveys a lot of basic info, starting with the banner above him with name and title. He sits with his arms almost folded, holding a card hand in his right hand. Behind him at his right shoulder is a sandwich. A nearby scroll displays short text about his sandwich association.

About a month ago, I took closer note of the card hand. He held the ace of diamonds, king of spades, queen of hearts, jack of clubs, and ten of hearts. I got to thinking about card hand ranks. "Poker Hand Rankings" shows images and text for the 10 ranking poker hands. Because the earl's sequential cards (ace high) are not in the same suit, the hand is not the highest ranked royal flush, but seventh-ranked straight.

The sandwich part of the image piqued me to consider single-hand foods. On one hand, impractical sandwiches—sloppy (Sloppy Joes), oversize (triple burgers), utensil-required open-face sandwiches. On another hand, dough-enclosure foods that totally envelop fillings.

Awkward Sandwiches

Sandwiches can be drippy and messy, such as sloppy joes. How about open-faced sandwiches that go against the earl's intent of one-handed eating? How about a Dagwood, which "Dagwood Sandwich History" describes it as "a mountainous pile of dissimilar leftovers precariously arranged between two slices of bread"?

Seems that more recently, several eatery chains offer up sandwiches that are as thick as they are wide. Examples include triple-patty burgers and submarine sandwiches with multiple items and options for extra meat servings. Do a Google image search for "thick sandwiches" for eye-popping pictures.

Dough-enclosure Foods

Maybe Earl of Sandwich was capable of eating a sandwich while playing cards. More convenient hand handling foods would seem to be dough-enclosure foods like piroshki, savory kolaches, bierocks, and Chinese pork buns. With apparent similar feature of keeping fillings inside, empañadas are smaller hand-held turnovers.

"Baked Piroshki (Russian Stuffed Rolls)" explains the stuffed pies and mentions similar hand-held foods. It also points to "Bierocks (German Stuffed Rolls)". I'd not heard of bierocks before, but they sound similar to piroshki. Both sites include cultural info, pictures, and recipes.

"The Czech Pastry That Took Texas By Storm, And Keeps Gaining Strength" explains that kolaches are Czech-origin, but savory ones started in Texas.

While traditional kolaches are fruit-filled, a Texan twist evolved when they were made with sausage, cheese and jalapeños. Irwin, a self-proclaimed kolache purist, maintains that these are not true kolaches, but rather what her father called a "klobasniki."

"Pork Buns" shows seven types of pork buns—baked, fried, steamed, with links to recipes.

Ahhh, I'm not much into bread dough labor, even though I have both a tilt-head mixer and bread maker. I use them in spurts. Pizza recipes make my eyes glaze over. My favorite way to get these fresh, doughy foods is to go to ethnic eateries. Or think about other things till the yens subside.

BLEATCH, Son of BLT

In the distant past, I had prepared a sandwich that evolved from BLT. The initials were good reminders of the ingredients, excluding condiments. A BLEATCH sandwich is labor intensive, and easier to assemble if ingredients are prepared and parceled out ahead of time.

Initial ingredients (Prepare with consideration for bread size you'd use.)

• Bacon (couple of cooked slices)
• Lettuce (a leaf)
• Egg (yolk broken and cooked after egg flip, or stir then pan-fried as though for an omelet)
• Avocado (a layer. It'd be BLETCH without avocado.)
• Tomato (a layer)
• Cheese (a slice or more)
• Ham (a slice)

Lightly grill or toast two slices of bread. Spread condiments. Assemble initial ingredients between the bread slices. Your stacking order may vary.

Another Early Look

For more details and images of the Earl of Sandwich, visit "The sandwich was named after an 18th century earl who didn’t want to take a break from gambling to eat".