Sandwich historian brings unique flare to vintage recipes on TikTok

LOS ANGELES – Would you at any time try out an oyster sandwich? How about a mustard sandwich with butter on rye bread? While they may possibly not be the initially issue you imagine of when you wander into your neighborhood bodega, these were being pretty well-known in a bygone era.

When there are a lot of historic sandwich recipes that have been dropped to time, just one TikTok influencer is dusting off outdated historic cookbooks to carry whichever men and women from the final century believed was appropriate to place between two slices of bread and showcasing it for today’s younger, hipper viewers. 

Meet Barry Enderwick, who is effective as a marketing and advertising director in California for his day career, and uses that internet marketing skill in legitimate “Mad Guys” vogue to ideally get people today fascinated in absurd but when common recipes from the 1700s to the early 1900s.

Even though he’s not always profitable at re-branding points like the mashed anchovy sandwich, his reviews have amassed 3.2 million likes. 

“We ought to have named this sandwich ‘harsh reality,’” Enderwick quipped in a video clip reviewing the notorious anchovy sandwich. 

That may possibly have looked gross, but his pursuing shows Enderwick is not right here to chase any individual off. 

Enderwick says he’s been identified as the “Bob Ross of sandwiches.” His voice is relaxed and typically generates a satisfied spin on even the most controversial sandwich recipes.

A key illustration of Enderwick’s perform is the French “pan bagnat,” which he has ranked as a single of his favorites. The sandwich involves two days of work. He begins off by building a vinaigrette dressing to which he provides crimson onions, tomatoes olives, cucumber, thinly sliced radishes and arugula. He provides that combination to a baguette with slices of difficult-boiled egg, and an anchovy filet, wrapped tightly in plastic and chilled in the fridge weighed down overnight. 

“Male! How arrive I have under no circumstances produced this just before,” Enderwick exclaimed as he rated the dish a 10/10. 

It’s articles like that which highlights the craft that goes into the video clips Enderwick makes. He is not just a guy on the online having sandwiches in entrance of a digital camera. He’s bringing his viewers on a journey by way of the essence of what is most probable the magnum opus of human cuisine. 

Albeit, Enderwick normally only would make 50 % of the sandwiches he picks out of the cookbooks since he suggests he “does not like to squander foods because some of people sandwiches aren’t fantastic.”

A great deal a lot more than just two slices of bread

Irrespective of some polarizing recipes, the vast majority of the reactions to Enderwick’s written content has been praise and even pride each time he showcases a historical sandwich from a distinct tradition, like the Cuban sandwich.

“Folks from all those countries see it and get incredibly enthusiastic to see their nation represented,” Enderwick said. “I try to be pretty respectful of the language, of the historical past, the context of the culture mainly because I’m not here to mock any person, I’m here to check out these sandwiches out and the international kinds are perfectly acknowledged for a motive.”

When you have a dish that tens of millions of individuals keep so close to their heart with so considerably pride for a little something — potentially their grandparents or mother and father have been generating for them given that they were being a little one — there will often be clashing views. 

“I just did the Cuban sandwich and positive more than enough, I did not have obtain to Cuban water bread and didn’t have time to make it so I used a ciabatta roll and I have listened to from a person who states ‘I’m Cuban and that is flawlessly fantastic!’ to ‘it’s not a Cuban sandwich if you are not working with Cuban bread!’ but I really do not intellect the remarks like that mainly because it just exhibits they’re passionate about sandwiches,” Enderwick stated. 

Enderwick regarded Cuban sandwich fans as some of the most renowned sandwich gatekeepers, and for very good cause. Sandwiches signify a great deal to persons. 

“Each sandwich, which include the Kentucky scorching brown, the Cuban sandwich, the Bahn mi, everyone is intense about how they encounter it, which is wonderful, I’ll listen to about unique variations that I have not read of before,” he supplied. 

Sandwiches: Everyone’s Proustian madeleine

Proustian madeleine is an expression coined by the famous novelist Marcel Proust, who wrote in his most effectively-known novel “Swann’s Way,” revealed in 1913 about madeleine tea cakes. The odor and flavor of the cakes would overwhelm him with emotion bringing him back again to the days of his childhood when his mom would give him the identical snack evoking happy and healthful memories of his previous. 

In excess of time, the expression grew to become a common way to describe when a thing like foods or even a location brings forth memories affiliated with that extremely matter. 

This is the specific effects that sandwiches look to have on most individuals, in accordance to Enderwick. He grew up consuming a fried bologna sandwich. A easy dish he grew up feeding on that he still loves to this day. 

That is the attractiveness that has brought hundreds of thousands to Enderwick’s channel. Tens of millions of people today, whether or not they know or not, have an fascination in connecting with their previous through the magic of cooking. 

Enderwick suggests mass attractiveness for the dish can largely be noticed in its practicality.

“There’s a good deal of prospects. You can put just about anything involving two slices of bread, you can place any combination of items concerning two slices of bread, you can cross cultures in just people two slices of bread, so there is a large amount of likely there,” Enderwick stated. “It is relatable, the richest individual in the globe has experienced a sandwich and likely the man or woman who’s least perfectly off has experienced a sandwich of some type, so it type of spans courses and I think men and women are just psyched by studying about historic sandwiches.”