There’s a lot to learn in a sandwich. From the muffuletta to the Monte Cristo to recipes from the 1960s featuring peanut butter and mayonnaise (yes, really), there is so much that can tell us about a time period between two slices of bread. And that’s where the popular social media account Sandwiches of History comes in.
“The first cookbook that I read was ‘The Up-to-Date Sandwich Book’ that was published in 1909, that’s what kicked everything off,” Barry Enderwick, creator of Sandwiches of History, tells TODAY.com.
The tome holds such vintage sandwich recipes as a spinach sandwich, which Enderwick has made and enjoyed. “Since then, I’ve been able to acquire physical books. I probably have about 20 to 30, and people scan or take pictures of recipes and send them to me.”
The concept, which began in 2018, is simple: Enderwick makes a sandwich in his kitchen. Explaining how to make the dish in one of his signature patterned button-downs, he then takes a bite and rates the result. If he has an idea of how a recipe can be improved, he’ll add an ingredient or two.
This project has garnered the San Jose-resident nearly 500,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram, along with millions of likes and views.
“I’ve consciously made a decision to have this just be sort of like a video snack for people,” Enderwick says, adding that his goal was to simply present recipes that he and his audience could try. “If it’s good, great. If it’s not, can we make it great? And if it’s terrible, let’s throw it in the garbage.”
Enderwick estimates that he’s made 600 or so sandwiches on camera so far, and posts one new video a day.
“I gotta eat, right?” he says.
Enderwick’s recipe project runs the gamut when it comes to geography. He’s made sandwiches that originated in the U.S., like a 1927 chicken salad sandwich, as well as Mexico’s mollete, an open-faced sandwich with refried beans and white cheese, and China’s rou jia mo, a meat sandwich that dates all the way back to about 221 to 207 B.C.
Enderwick has several specialty posts on his account, too: Guest hosts have included “Bob’s Burger” and “Archer” star H. Jon Benjamin, actor and comedian Rob Huebel and several well-known chefs. In a series he’s dubbed “Sandwiches of Our History,” Enderwick tries recipes from viewers and their loved ones.
“I’ve tried to capture sandwiches that are being passed down within families, you know, stuff that’s not necessarily going to be found in a book but might be interesting and fun to try,” he says.
Another aspect that is compelling about Enderwick’s videos is the way he can take a recipe that may seem bland by modern palates and “plus it up” with a simple addition of a step or ingredient. A recent example of this is a “Smart Sandwich” from 1923’s “The American Woman’s Cook Book,” which consists of cheese squished “to a paste,” Worcestershire sauce and a bit of butter on bread. Enderwick took it up a notch by simply grilling it.
“When I first started Sandwiches of History, I was just going to make the sandwiches as written, and then I realized some sandwiches may be boring, but they’re not a bad foundation,” he says. “If you just add an ingredient or two, this could be kind of good. That’s where the ‘plussing up’ originated from.”
For Enderwick, whose day job is working as a partner at a consulting firm, all these sandwich-based videos are a passion project. As for what motivates him to continue on his bread-filled journey, he says he’s moved by those close to him.
“I wasn’t much of a foodie or cook growing up because my parents were not the best cooks,” Enderwick says, crediting his fiancée Christine and her family, who cook Mediterranean food, with expanding his palate. “It was just like, holy smokes, there is this whole world of flavor that I didn’t know is out there. Ever since then, I’ve been cooking, eating, trying new things, different flavors from different cultures, different textures and things like that.”
Although there are a fair share of followers who crave the more outlandish sandwiches Enderwick has undertaken — one such being a mayonnaise and Marshmallow Fluff sandwich he found “quite good” when he added peanut butter to it — his favorite sandwich is something far more appetizing.
“It’s gonna be a sandwich from recent history — the tomato sandwich from Turkey and the Wolf. It’s just a tomato sandwich,” Enderwick says, referring to a recipe from the New Orleans restaurant helmed by chef Mason Hereford. “But it has sunflower seeds. It’s got mayonnaise, it’s got lemon juice, it’s got dill, it’s got basil and it has no business being as ridiculously delicious as it is.”
What’s next for Enderwick? Well, he’s got big plans: On Oct. 8, he announced he’s working on a cookbook, which has a planned release of Fall 2024.
“It’s absolutely surreal, I mean, I’m just a guy in his kitchen making a sandwich, so the fact that this has garnered any attention whatsoever is just amazing,” Enderwick says. “What’s great is by and large, everyone’s really positive, they’re interested in playing along and they’ll share that they tried one of the recipes and loved it. It’s turned into this really fun thing that I never even dreamed it could be.”
