Ham sandwich


The ham sandwich is a common type of sandwich. The bread may be fresh or toasted. Butter is optional.

History

The ham sandwich is one of the earliest recorded closed-face sandwiches; by 1850, at least 70 London street vendors offered it.

Consumption

The British Sandwich Association says that the ham sandwich is the most popular sandwich in the UK, and a survey they conducted in 2001 saw ham as the second favourite filling behind cheese. 70% of the 1.8 billion sandwiches eaten in France in 2008 were ham sandwiches, prompting a French economic analysis firm to begin a 'jambon-beurre index', like the Big Mac Index, to compare prices across the country.
The world's longest ham sandwich was created by butcher Nico Jimenez in Pamplona, Spain in 2009.

Health

The World Cancer Research Fund warned in 2009 against parents feeding their children too many ham sandwiches, due to the risk of bowel cancer from the processed meat.
A ham sandwich was suspected of causing an outbreak of swine fever in the UK in 2000.

Cultural impact

New York State chief judge Sol Wachtler was famously quoted by Tom Wolfe in The Bonfire of the Vanities that "a grand jury would 'indict a ham sandwich,' if that's what you wanted."
A fictional talking ham sandwich appeared in an online noir serial in the late 1990s, and the publishers sued in 1999 when a similar character appeared in a television advertisement for Florida orange juice, though the suit was withdrawn.
The name "ham sandwich" is sometimes used to refer to a firearm planted at a crime scene by police as false evidence.