These exquisite works of edible art descend from practical traditions:
"Smorrebrod can be anything between heaven and earth. Primarily it consists of a piece of breadof some kind. The Danes make most use of rye bread because it is more suitable than othervarieties for many of their sandwiches...Upon the bread something, generally butter, is in mostcases spread. As one would expect, when the Danes spread the fine butter for which they arefamous, they spread it generously. Not only because it gives them vitamin A or because they likethe taste but also because fatstuffs help to keep out the cold. And keeping out the cold isimportant for most of the Danish year. Though butter ranks first as "the something to spread",spiced lard or pork dripping, maybe even goose or duck dripping, are often used. Not only, in thecase of the pork fat, as an economy measure but because the Danes prefer fat to butter whenliverpaste, salt meats and most kinds of sausage, are to be the crowning glory of the smorrebrod.When it comes to the question of what to put on the "buttered bread" (The Danish works for"butter" and "to butter" are the same as for "grease" and "to grease" so the expression "butteredbread" include bread spread with dripping of one kind or another) the only answer can be: "Thereis absolutely nothing edible which cannot be used for smorrebrod". The Danish town housewifepatronizes the charcuterie of cooked meat shop around the corner; her country sister may bucertain kinds of pale (literally "something laid on", i.e. any fish, meat, vegetable etc. used on thebuttered bread) from the butcher who brings his mobile shop to her door...Above all both townand country housewife will make use of leftovers from paleg. "Leftovers embraces anything fromslices of cold pork sausage garnished with a remnant of red cabbage to slices taken from a stillsubstantial joint of meat. It is this use of lefovers which makes smorrebrod such a useful thing toknow about in order to be able to cope in an interesting yet substantial manner with thoseunexpected guests...The average dane has only one hot meal daily. For lunch and/or supper heeats smorrebrod."
---Oskar Davidsen book of Open Sandwiches, compiled by James R. White from traditionalDanish recipes and specialties of the House of Oskar Davidsen [Host & SonsForlag:Copenhagen], 3rd revised edition, 1962 (p. 9-10)
"The Sandwich StorySomewhere in the centre of Copenhagen there ought to be a monument to the man or womanwho discovered smorrebrod, the open sandwich which is Denmark's national dish. Anappropriate site would be the Town Hall end of the new Hans Andersen Boulevard, for theinventor of smorrebrod obviously had something of a fantasy of the great Danish storyteller.Alas, historians are silent as to the identity of the man wo first placed fish, fowl, meat andvegetables on a piece of buttered bread. Some Danish encyclopedias do not even list one of themost important words in the Danish language. The inventor of the smorrebrodsseddel orsandwich list is, however, known. And nobody has ever disputed that it was not untul old OskarDavidsen acceeded to the request of young Axel Svensson to be allowed to make somethingamusing out of the restaurant's sandwich list that open sandwiches in all their infinite varietybegan to develop into what they are today...The origin of the sandwich is a subject on which evenhistorians can but speculate. Some suggest that recognisable sandwiches were known in ancientBabylon, wothers that a rabbi contrived them for the Passover by placing bitter herbs betweentwo slices of unleavened bread to symbolise Jewish privations in Egypt. When smorrebrod firstsaw the light of day is equally a matter for speculation. Certainly it appeared centuries before anEarl of Sandwich first placed pieces of meat between two slices of bread to enable his guests toeat without leaving the card table. The Danish workd simply means "buttered bread". But theorigins of open sandwiches can be traced back to the days when, in Denmark as elsewhere, around of bread served as a plate for both hot food and cold. Naturally the rich refrained fromeating their plates but these, soaked in nourishing gravy from the main course, invariably foundtheir way to the mouths of the serfs or deserving poor of the parish. And between rich and poorthere was doubtless a class which ate both bread-plate and the delicacies which reposed upon it.As yet...this open sandwich could not have been known as smorrebrod for butter was stillunknown in Denmark...The earliest mention of the word smorrebrod is found in the works of theplaywright Ludvig Holberg (168401754) who describes the diet of the gentry as consisting ofsoup, salt meat or smorrebrod. No mystery, however, surrounds the invention of thesmorrebrodsseddel or printed list of open sandwiches. It was Emil Bjorn, head waiter at theCopenhagen officers' club, who, when harried by shouted orders from the card tables, conceived,in 1883, the idea of lists on which the guests could mark off their requirements. Bjorn's idea wassoon adopted by restaurants throughout the country, but many years were to pass before thesescant lists were developed into what they are in Denmark today."
---ibid (p. 11-12)
Related items" Canapes & Breadless sandwiches.
Panini
Our survey of historic cookbooks and food articles confirm grilled sandwiches, including thosecooked with special apparatus designed for the purpose, have been popular from the beginning of the 20th century forwards. Electric sandwich makers were just as intriguing to folks in the 1930s as they are they are today. Think: Grilled Cheese.Food historians generally agree panini (plural, the singular is panino), as we Americans know them today, originated in thepanintecas (sandwich shops) of Italy, perhaps as early as the 1960s. Our survey of newspaperarticles confirms panini origin captured American attention in the mid-1970s. As time progressed, paninievolved from upscale fare to trendy sandwiches for the masses. Industry experts credit novelcombinations (ingredients/textures) and the product's *staying power* (they can be made ahead of time) for paninismodern success. In the 1990s, panini nudged their way into family restaurants and institutional menus (colleges,hospitals, airports). Sales of panini grills soared, both commercial and home versions. Frozen panini products happened.
"For centuries bread was the complete meal par excellence, until it became the support or container for a condiment or filling, without losing the identity associated with its linguistic diminutive [panino, diminutive of pane, denotes a sandwichin Itlian--Trans.]"
---Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History, Alberto Capatti & Massimo Montanari [Columbia University Press:New York] 1999 (p. 153)
"Panino..."small bread." Small sandwich. The name was apparently coined at Milan's PaninotecaBar Quadronno. Panini cresciuti (grown rolls) are fried Sicilian potato rolls containing ham andcheese. From the Latin panis."
---The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998(p 177-8)
"'Panini' is the Americanized version of the Italian word panino, which means little sandwichand refers to a class of sandwiches that became popular in the United States in the late 1990s.Flavor is the key to panini, which are based on high-quality Italian artisan breads like focaccia orciabatta. The sandwiches are layered, but not overstuffed, with flavorful combinations of cheeses,meats, or roasted vegetables. Various dressings or condiments are added, and the sandwich ispressed and lightly grilled. Panini-style sandwiches are popular in trendy restaurants throughoutthe United States."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [OxfordUniversity Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 235)
"[Panini] are said to have originated in Lombardy, Italy, in response to the demand amongMilanese office workers for a quick lunch without sacrifice in flavor and quality. In both Italy andthe United States, panini are eaten for lunch and as snacks and appetizers. In Italy, sandwichshops traditionally wrap the bottom of the panino in a crisp white paper napkin, providing apractical solution to drips while enchancing aesthetics. Quality Italian bread is an absolute mustfor a killer panini, and most sandwich chefs will opt for a relatively thin artisan bread likegrooved focaccia or ciabatta, slicing it in half horizontally. Panini are always grilled, so mostrestaurants and cafes have invested in professional grooved sandwich presses that flatten and heatthe sandwich while creating a crunch, buttery outer crust."
---American Sandwich: Great Eats from all 50 States, Becky Mercuri [Gibbs Smith:Salt Lake CityUT] 2004 (p. 81)
The earliest print reference we find for panini (as a food) in an American newspapers is 1956. We cannot tell from thearticle if the panini served at this fair is the same as the one commonly found in contemporary menus.
[1954]
"The visitors ate Italian sausage, also pizze fritta, zeppole, calzone, torrone, panini, pepperoni, taralli."
---"Old World Festival in East Harlem," New York Times, July 25, 1954 (p. SM 22)
[1976]
"Another attraction, even for northern Italian visitors to Rome, is the nice price of a meal, now even nicer...Most cafe-barsserve sandwiches--which may be called tramezzini, panini, or medaglioni, depending on their composition..."
--"Revel in Rome's Unholy Year '76," Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1976 (p. G7)
[1976]
"By noon today it is probable that lines will already be forming at the brand new Caffe Orsini, opening at 11:30 this morning atBonwit Teller's second floor, overlooking 57th Street. Luxuriously decorated with rough white plaster walls, tomato-pinkupholstered banquettes, tile inlaid tables and polychromed wooden wall sconces and frames, this Continental style coffee houseis an offspring of Orsini's restaurant on 56th Street. The menu will offer stylish Italianate salads and panini sandwiches..."
---"Food and Style: Shoppers Find Both in Store Restaurants," Mimi Sheraton, New York Times, October 7, 1976 (p. 77)
[1982]
"Speaking of Italian foods, many readers wrote in about an earlier reference to "panini." I statedthat the only recipe for panini that I could uncover in my research was for panini di pasqua, orEaster Breads. Panini, I was told is simply the plural of the Italian panino, an overall word forrolls. One reader wrote that "the sandwiches you get on small rolls in cafes in Italy are 'paniniimbotiti' - stuffed rolls.""
---"Q & A," New York Times, April 14, 1982, (p. C8)
[1985]
"The restaurant also makes a pungently flavorful lasagna, the thin sheets of pasta layered withcheese and so barely sauced that it is reminiscent of the spare food that Kleiman popularized atVerdi. This is not the southern Italy that comes out of No. 10 cans of tomatoes, but the southernItaly of light-handed cooks. There are calzone, both fried and baked (I found the fried versionrather bland), and a whole range of wonderful panini, Italian sandwiches stuffed into crusty home-made rolls."
---"Ethinic Places Serve Foods That They Love Best," Ruth Reichl, Los Angeles Times, Jan 13,1985 (p. 86)
[1995]
"I'll bet a hundred bucks that panino, the Italian word for sandwich, will soon slip off your tonguelike honey. Pretty soon, you'll start noticing restaurant menus and sandwich shops featuring panini(plural) exclusively. You'll find them at such places as the MOCA (Museum of ContemporaryArt) cafe, Il Panino, in the new downtown museum complex, and at a spot in Beverly Hills calledGiannino's. You'll see them on the menu at Il Piccolino and at Angeli Caffe, both in Los Angeles,and you'll see them at picnics and party buffets.An Italian might shrug if you ask the origin ofpanino. Said Celestino Drago, who operates Il Panino, "No one ever asks where or how they cameabout. They are just there." In Italy, panini are everywhere. They are fast food eaten on the run,to and from work, on the job, in train stations, in cars on the street. Sky-high piles of panini arepacked in glass cases at almost every bakery and coffee shop for the hordes who want to grab abite before or after work or a movie. Mothers pack them in schoolchildren's lunch bags. The ever-growing numbers of young, fast food lovers in Italy, called paninari, prefer the social scene atsandwich shops and McDonald's golden arches to the family dinner table, where every familymember should be, but no longer is, to the chagrin of traditionalists bemoaning the disintegrationof the Italian family fiber. In Milan, upscale paninotecas have emerged only in the last five yearsas havens for gourmet sandwich-eaters, who stand at tables to nibble on such fillings as duck orwild boar prosciutto while sipping fine wine. In Los Angeles, the panino has just begun to finda place among those who enjoy Italian flavors and great bread. For it's the bread that distinguishesevery panino. The word derives from the word pane, meaning bread. There are dozens of differenttypes of bread used for panini. Every region in Italy boasts a specialty. In Tuscany, you'll findmichetta, a roll with a hole in middle, a strong favorite, whereas in Milan the specialty is rosetta,a rosette-shaped roll, and in Genoa it is focaccia, a flatbread with baked-on flavorings such aspesto, garlic butter and onions. The rolls may be elongated, round, square or flat. They may beseasoned or not. We give a few recipes for dough typically used in panini, but you can also usestore-bought rolls and loaves found in fancy food shops as well as the neighborhood supermarket.Some Italian bakeries such as Il Fornaio in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica carry several popularpanino varieties used by Il Panino, including michetta and ciabatta. Kaiser rolls, onion rolls andthe like are ideally suited for panini. Square loaves such as pane in cassetta, ideal for grilling, caneasily be substituted with firm-textured white or wheat bread. In Italy, with the exception perhapsof those found at paninotecas in Milan, panino fillings tend to be traditional types-sausage, roastpeppers, cheeses, tomatoes, vegetables, mortadella, salamis and other sausages. In Sicily, veal andchicken cutlets are slapped between two pieces of bread. Roast peppers are also a popular paninofilling. The panini appearing in Los Angeles, however, are something else. "They are not as fancyas those you'd find at the paninotecas in Milan, because we want to educate slowly, but they areinteresting," Drago said. Actually, anything goes. At the MOCA cafe, Il Panino, Drago hasintroduced eight sandwich fillings that are California variations on the traditional Italian theme.In a sandwich called Milano, sliced turkey is served with California goat cheese, avocado, sun-dried tomatoes, and arugula. A smoked salmon and mascarpone cheese filling is garnished withsalmon roe, capers and chives. Evan Kleiman, chef and co-owner of Angeli, a California-styleItalian restaurant, fell in love with the sandwiches on her first visit to Italy at the age of 16 anddoes take-offs on traditional themes. "You open your mind to what is put in between two piecesof bread," she said. A sandwich Kleiman has called panino rustico contains chicken salad, dressedwith Dijon mustard and arugula. This and other fillings such as roast pork are found in her book,"Cucina Fresca," co-authored with Viana La Place (Harper & Row: 1985). The roast pork isseasoned with Dijon mustard and topped with pickled onions. Dino Baglioni of Il Piccolinorestaurant in Los Angeles serves several types of panini, including some using long, tapered rollsand round ones. They may be filled with red and green peppers and sausages; veal scaloppinewith mozzarella cheese or ricotta cheese with prosciutto. There is also a sandwich made withsmoked salmon, horseradish and capers. At Giannino's, the paninoteca in Beverly Hills, thesandwiches are simple and basic. Nothing fancy here. The sandwich called Godfather containsham, mortadella, provolone and mixed peppers; the Capone has capocollo (sausage) and mixedpeppers, and the tachinello contains smoked turkey and Swiss cheese."Panino Translated as "little loaf," panino is known throughout Italy as a sandwich you pickup on the go. Now panini are here in Los Angeles to delight the palate and expand the
---"Sandwich Repertoire," Rose Dosti, Los Angeles Times, Jul 23, 1987 (p. 1)
[1995]
"Just watch. In coffee bars, cafes and delis everywhere, soon you'll hear: "Give me a grilledveggie panino." The distinctive little sandwich familiar at way stations on Italian autostradas, thepressed panino (panini in the plural) is gaining a foothold in Washington. Picture a good oldgrilled cheese, but without the grease, layered with sauteed vegetables or deli meats or acombination. Light, flavorful and, yes, oh-so-trendy, panini (like coffee bars) have leap-froggedacross the country. From Seattle to Chicago to Dallas, hot pressed sandwiches, made withfocaccia or rustic bread, striped with grill marks, are a have-to-have with that latte. "People wanta little something other than sweets at a coffee bar," says Joel Edwards, president of Issaquah,Washington State-based Caffe Andiamo, which manufactures a panini press called Pane BellaGrill. "And for cafe owners panini are a way to attract that 11-to-2 customer base." Edwardscredits Nordstrom stores with spreading the craze eastward. All Nordstrom espresso bars featurepressed panini. "What's unique is the press itself," says restaurant consultant Mark Caraluzzi, co-owner of Bistro Bistro and D'Angelo. "It's a gentle heat that crisps the bread but steams the insideso it doesn't dry out." Grill stripes, Caraluzzi contends, let the customer know his sandwich wasnot browned in a puddle of oil. "We are the grilling country," he says."
---"Let Them Eat Panini," Walter Nicholls, The Washington Post, July 5, 1995, (p. E11)
[2002]
"Panini grills have been around for more than 100 years, but were generally ignored in theUnited States until the Italian grilled sandwiches made with them began to show up in carryoutshops and on restaurant menus. Now these grills are set to become the Belgian-waffle irons of the21st century. Two years ago, I couldn't find anything called a panini grill. Suddenly, there are allkinds of possibilities. Eat your heart out, Dagwood. Panini are nothing more than grown-upcheese-and-meat sandwiches toasted on a ridged grill that has a weighted top to press down thesandwich to the thickness of a waffle. It is that weighted top that seems to draw men to paninigrills. They are the functional equivalent of something you might cook with in the yard. ''Menhave taken to the panini grill like they took to barbecue,'' said Michael Chiarello, the host of acooking show on public television that is based in the Napa Valley. ''Guys just want a generalconcept of a recipe -- bread and stuff,' he said. ''They don't want to measure anything.'"
---"Presses New and Old Prove That Panini Aren't Picky," Marian Burros, New York Times, July17, 2002, (p.F6).
Bread of choice for panini? Ciabatta. Compare with
