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A Hoagie, Hero, or Submarine sandwich

A Submarine sandwich, also known as a Hoagie, Hero, or Grinder, is a type of deli sandwich that originated in several different Italian American communities in the Northeastern United States from the late 19th to mid 20th centuries. The sandwich generally consists of an oblong roll of often Italian bread or French bread, sliced down its length and packed with cold lunch meats, sliced cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, peppers, sauces, and spices. The popularity of this Italian-American cuisine has grown from its New York and Pennsylvania origins to most parts of the United States, and with the advent of chain restaurants, is now available in many parts of the world. ¹

History and Etymology

Hero

November 16, 1864 issue of the New York Tribune

The term hero originated in New York in the late 19th century when Italian laborers wanted a convenient lunch that reminded them of home. The name is credited to New York Herald Tribune Food writer Clementine Paddleford who wrote in the 1930's that you needed to be a hero to eat the giant sized Italian sandwich. ²

The hero is traditionally at least two Italian meats and provolone cheese on a small or half loaf of crusty Italian bread with roasted peppers, vinegar, olive oil, and lettuce. It is a pork-based sandwich; popular meat choices include ham, prosciutto, pepperoni, capicola, mortadella and salami. However, the term "hero" has come to refer to any long sandwich in the greater New York area with the more non-regional term "sub" gradually becoming more popular in recent years.

"Hero" remains the prevailing term for any sandwich with a generally Italian flavor, in addition to the original described above. Pizzeria menus often include eggplant parmigiana, chicken parmigiana, and meatball heros, each served with tomato sauce. Pepper and egg heros and potato and egg heros are also popular.

Hoagie

Workers reading the Hog Island News in 1918

The term Hoagie originated in the Philadelphia area.. Domenic Vitiello, professor of Urban Studies at the University of Pennsylvania asserts that Italians working at the World War I shipyard in Philadelphia, known as Hog Island where emergency shipping was produced for the war effort, introduced the sandwich, by putting various meats, cheeses, and lettuce between two slices of bread. This became known as the "Hog Island" sandwich; hence, the "hoagie".³ The Philadelphia Almanac and Citizen's Manual offers a different explanation, that the sandwich was created by early twentieth century street vendors called "hokey-pokey men", who sold antipasto salad, along with meats and cookies. When Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta H.M.S. Pinafore opened in Philadelphia in 1879, bakeries produced a long loaf called the pinafore. Entrepreneurial "hokey-pokey men" sliced the loaf in half, stuffed it with antipasto salad, and sold the world's first "hoagie".⁴

Another explanation is that the word "hoagie" arose in the late 19th-early 20th century, among the Italian community in South Philadelphia, when "on the hoke" was a slang used to describe a destitute person. Deli owners would give away scraps of cheeses and meats in an Italian bread-roll known as a "hokie", but the Italian immigrants pronounced it "hoagie." ⁵

Other less likely explanations involve "Hogan" (a nickname for Irish workers at the Hogg Island shipyard), a reference to the pork or "hog" meat used in hoagies, "honky sandwich" (using a racial slur for white people seen eating them) or "hooky sandwich" (derived from "hookie" for truant kids seen eating them).⁶ Shortly after WWI, there were numerous varities of the term in use throughout Philadelphia. By the 1940s, the spellings "hoagie" and, to a lesser extent, "hoagy" had come to dominate lesser user variations like "hoogie" and "hoggie".⁷ By 1955, restaurants thoughout the area were using the term "hoagie", with many selling hoagies and subs or hoagies and pizza. Listing in Pittsburg show hoagies arriving in 1961 and becoming widespread in that city by 1966.⁸

Former Philadelphia mayor (now Pennsylvania governor) Ed Rendell declared the hoagie the "Official Sandwich of Philadelphia"⁹. However, there are claims that the hoagie was actually a product of nearby Chester, Pennsylvania.¹⁰

Submarine

Holland 1 underway

The orign of the term Submarine Sandwich is disputed. One theory is that it originated in a restaurant in Scollay Square in Boston, Massachusetts at the beginning of World War II. The sandwich was created to entice the large numbers of navy servicemen stationed at the Charlestown Navy Yard. The bread was a smaller specially baked baguette intended to resemble the hull of the submarines it was named after.¹¹

Another legend suggests the submarine sandwich was brought to the US by Dominic Conti (1874-1954), an Italian immigrant who came to New York in the early 1900s.¹² In 1910 Mr. Conti started Dominic Conti's Grocery Store in on Mill Street in Paterson, NJ and named the sandwich after seeing the recovered 1878 submarine called "Holland 1" in the local Paterson museum in 1927. His granddaughter has stated the following: "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 herbs and spices, salt, and pepper. The sandwich started with a layer of cheese and ended with a layer of cheese (this was so the bread wouldn’t get soggy).

Other names

• Cosmo — North Central Pennsylvania in and around Williamsport — an oven-toasted sub.
• Grinder — Midwest, New England, Fairfield County, Connecticut. Inland Empire of Southern California.
• Spuckie — Boston, Massachusetts (used particularly in Italian immigrant neighborhoods)
• Wedge — Prevalent in Yonkers, parts of the Bronx, and Upstate New York.
• Zeppelin — New Jersey; Phoenixville, PA and Norristown, PA.
• Torpedo — New York, New Jersey, other areas.

Ingredients and preparation

Common recipe

The traditional sandwich usually includes a variety of Italian luncheon meats, including dry Genoa salami, mortadella, thin sliced pepperoni, capicolla or prosciutto, and provolone cheese served with lettuce, tomato, onions, and peppers with an olive oil dressing. American bologna is sometimes used in place of mortadella and ham is often substituted for capicola and prosciutto is often omitted. Many locations that provide catering services also offer 6-foot "Giant" sandwiches.

Regional differences

• It is often said that Philadelphia style Hoagies should have bread that is crusty on the outside and soft inside.
• Hoagies can often have only one meat, whereas NY style Heroes usually have multiple meats.
• Hot and cold sandwiches have been called Grinders though the term usualy means hot.
• Tomatoes were not a historical ingredient of the hero, but are often included in modern heroes.
• A standard Zep contains only cooked salami and provolone as the meat and cheese filling, and has no lettuce.

¹³

Other variations

Meatball sandwich with bacon

• Po' boy—Louisiana creole style usually containing fried seafood on baguette-like Louisiana French bread.
• Meatball—meatballs in marinara sauce often with green peppers and onions and covered with mozzarella or provolone cheese
• Cheesesteak—thinly sliced pieces of steak and melted cheese on a long roll
• Bánh mì—Vietnamese baguette made with wheat and rice flour and sliced pickled carrots and daikon, onions, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapeño peppers and meat or tofu
• American—typically includes ham and white American cheese, bologna (American mortadella), cooked salami and others
• Ham and Cheese—hot or cold with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mayonnaise or oil, hot peppers and ground pepper
• Roast beef—as lunchmeat, with swiss cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, raw onions, and mayonnaise or a vinegar and oil sauce
• Roast pork—hot or cold
• Turkey—hot or cold with provolone cheese
• Cheese—white American or provolone or both (mixed), sometimes also Swiss cheese
• Tuna—either tuna salad or (especially in more ethnically Italian shops) Italian (canned) tuna in olive oil
• Fish—some variety of whiting, breaded and lightly fried, typically with tartar sauce
• Veggie—usually vegetables, such as peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli rabe; some shops even offer vegan hoagies, with no meat or dairy products
• Chicken salad
• Chicken—as lunchmeat, grilled meat, or cutlet
• Bacon—typically includes bacon (instead of lunchmeat)and provolone cheese, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, raw onions, and some times sweet peppers
• Breakfast—generally consists of bacon, eggs and cheese
• Tofu—Tofu, often lightly fried, with cilantro, cucumber, jalapeno, onion, and carrot.

Popularity and Availability

A Subway located in Sofia, Bulgaria

From its origins with the Italian American labor force in the North East, the Italian sandwich began to show up on the menus of local pizzerias. As time went on and popularity grew small restaurants called Hoagie shops and Sub shops began to open that specialized in the sandwich. ¹⁴

By the late 20th century due to the rise of large chain restaurants such as Subway and Quiznos, it became available in many other parts of the world including Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. ^{15 16}

The sandwich is also available from several US supermarkets and convenience stores such as Safeway, Pathmark, ShopRite, A&P and Wawa Food Markets. ^{17 18 19 20 21}

See also

• Panini (sandwich)
• Cuban sandwich
• French dip sandwich
• Italian beef
• Muffuletta

References