The roast beef sandwich is a

sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

that is made out of sliced

roast beef Roast beef is a dish of beef that is roasted, generally served as the main dish of a meal. In the Anglosphere, roast beef is one of the meats often served at Sunday lunch or dinner. Yorkshire pudding is a standard side dish. Sliced roast beef ...

or sometimes beef loaf. It is sold at many

diner A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...

s in the United States, as well as fast food chains, such as

Arby's Arby's is an American fast food sandwich restaurant chain with more than 3,300 restaurants system wide and third in terms of revenue. In October 2017, '' Food & Wine'' called Arby's "America's second largest sandwich chain (after Subway)". Ar ...

and

Roy Rogers Restaurants Roy Rogers Franchise Company, LLC is a chain of fast food restaurants primarily located in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. The chain originated as the rebranding of the ''RoBee's House of Beef'' chain of Fort Wayne, Indiana, acq ...

. This style of sandwich often comes on a

hamburger A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically Ground beef, beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles ...

bun and may be topped with

barbecue sauce Barbecue sauce (also abbreviated as BBQ sauce) is a sauce used as a marinade, basting (cooking), basting, condiment, or topping for meat cooked in the barbecue cooking style, including pork or beef ribs (food), ribs and chicken as food, chicken. I ...

and/or melted American cheese. The roast beef sandwich also commonly comprises bread, cold roast beef (either the leftovers from a homemade dinner or

deli Deli may refer to: * Delicatessen, a shop selling specially prepared food, or food prepared by such a shop * Sultanate of Deli, a former sultanate in North Sumatra, Indonesia Places * Deli, Boyer-Ahmad, a village in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Pro ...

meat),

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es, and

mustard Mustard may refer to: Food and plants * Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment * Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment ** Mustard seed, seeds of the mustard p ...

, although it would not be uncommon to find

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

horseradish Horseradish (''Armoracia rusticana'', syn. ''Cochlearia armoracia'') is a perennial plant of the family Brassicaceae (which also includes mustard, wasabi, broccoli, cabbage, and radish). It is a root vegetable, cultivated and used worldwide ...

, fresh/powdered

chili pepper Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...

and even in some cases

red onion Red onions (also known as purple or blue onions in some mainland European countries, though not the UK) are cultivars of the onion (''Allium cepa''), and have purplish-red skin and white flesh tinged with red. They are most commonly used in co ...

. Roast beef sandwiches may be served hot or cold, and are sometimes served open faced.

History

Some trace the origins of the modern (American-style) roast beef sandwich as far back as 1877, with the then little known "beefsteak toast" recipe: cold beef,

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

and

gravy Gravy is a sauce often made from the juices of meats that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with wheat flour or corn starch for added texture. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt (a simple mix of salt an ...

dish. In 1900, the dish was described by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' as "unattractive" and as "a tired ark in a gravy flood". The dish gained popularity in the coming years and by 1931, some critics even went as far as to describe it as "a true taste of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

By region

Roast beef sandwiches have been a specialty of the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

area, in particular in the North Shore of Massachusetts, since the early 1950s, typically served very rare, thinly sliced (sometimes referred to as shaved) and piled on an onion roll. Restaurants specializing in it include John's in Lynn, Londi's in Peabody, Mike's of Everett, Nick's of Beverly, Bill and Bob’s of Woburn, and Harrison's of

North Andover North Andover is an affluent town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 census the population was 30,915. History Native Americans inhabited what is now northeastern Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European c ...

. In

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

a small handful of establishments, beginning with Brennan & Carr in 1938, have served a variant of the sandwich.

Similar sandwiches

Beef on weck

The

beef on weck A beef on weck is a sandwich found primarily in Western New York State, particularly in the city of Buffalo. It is made with roast beef on a kummelweck roll, a roll that is topped with kosher salt and caraway seeds. The meat on the sandwich i ...

is a sandwich found primarily in

Western New York Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all sources agree WNY in ...

. It is made with roast beef on a kummelweck roll topped with salt and caraway seeds. The meat on the sandwich is traditionally served rare, thin cut, with the top bun getting a dip ''au jus'' and topped with

Chivito sandwich

The

chivito sandwich Chivito is the national dish of Uruguay. It is a sandwich of sliced beefsteak ('' churrasco''), mozzarella, ham, tomatoes, mayonnaise and black or green olives. A chivito commonly also includes bacon and fried or hard-boiled eggs. It is s ...

is a

national dish A national dish is a culinary dish that is strongly associated with a particular country. A dish can be considered a national dish for a variety of reasons: * It is a staple food, made from a selection of locally available foodstuffs that can be ...

in Uruguay, and consists primarily of a thin slice of

filet mignon Filet mignon (; ; ) is a cut of meat taken from the smaller end of the tenderloin, or psoas major of a cow. In French, it mostly refers to cuts of pork tenderloin. The tenderloin runs along both sides of the spine, and is usually butchered as ...

(''

churrasco ''Churrasco'' (, ) is the Portuguese and Spanish name for beef or grilled meat more generally. It is a prominent feature in the cuisine of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. The related term ''churrascaria'' (or ''churrasquería'') is mostly under ...

'' beef), with

mozzarella Mozzarella (, ; nap, muzzarella ) is a southern Italian cheese traditionally made from Italian buffalo's milk by the pasta filata method. Fresh mozzarella is generally white but when seasoned it turns to a light yellow depending on the anim ...

es,

mayonnaise Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tartar ...

, black or green

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

s, and commonly also

bacon Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...

, fried or

hard-boiled egg Boiled eggs are eggs, typically from a chicken, cooked with their shells unbroken, usually by immersion in boiling water. Hard-boiled eggs are cooked so that the egg white and egg yolk both solidify, while soft-boiled eggs may leave the yolk, a ...

s and

ham Ham is pork from a leg cut of pork, cut that has been food preservation, preserved by wet or dry Curing (food preservation), curing, with or without smoking (cooking), smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. Lo ...

. It is served in a bun, often with a side of French fries. Other ingredients might be added into the sandwich such as red beets, peas, grilled or pan-fried red peppers, and slices of cucumber.

Corned beef sandwich

The

corned beef sandwich A corned beef sandwich is a Jewish deli sandwich filled with corned beef, traditionally served with mustard and a pickle. Variations In the United Kingdom, where it is not considered to be a Jewish dish, the sandwich is most likely to be made w ...

is a sandwich prepared with

corned beef Corned beef, or salt beef in some of the Commonwealth of Nations, is Salt-cured meat, salt-cured brisket of beef. The term comes from the treatment of the meat with large-grained rock salt, also called "corns" of salt. Sometimes, sugar and sp ...

. The salt beef style corned beef sandwiches are traditionally served with

and a pickle. In the United Kingdom, pickle is a common addition to a corned beef sandwich.

French dip

The

French dip A French dip sandwich, also known as a beef dip, is a hot sandwich consisting of thinly sliced roast beef (or, sometimes, other meats) on a "French roll" or baguette. It is usually served plain but a variation is to top with Swiss cheese, onion ...

sandwich is a hot sandwich consisting of thinly sliced roast beef (or, sometimes, other meats) on a "French roll" or

baguette A baguette (; ) is a long, thin type of bread of French origin that is commonly made from basic lean dough (the dough, though not the shape, is defined by French law). It is distinguishable by its length and crisp crust. A baguette has a di ...

. It is usually served ''au jus'', that is, with beef juice from the cooking process. Beef broth or beef consommé is sometimes substituted. Despite the name, this American specialty is almost completely unknown in France, the name seeming to refer to the style of bread rather than an alleged French origin.

Pastrami on rye

The

pastrami on rye Pastrami on rye is a sandwich that was popularized in the Jewish kosher delicatessens of New York City. It was first created in 1888 by Sussman Volk, who served it at his deli on Delancey Street in New York City. History Sussman Volk immigrated ...

is a classic sandwich made famous in the Jewish kosher

delicatessen Traditionally, a delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessen originated in Germany (original: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the m ...

s of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. First created in 1888 by Sussman Volk, who served it at his deli on

Delancey Street __NOTOC__ Delancey Street is one of the main thoroughfares of New York City's Lower East Side in Manhattan, running from the street's western terminus at the Bowery to its eastern end at FDR Drive, connecting to the Williamsburg Bridge and Bro ...

in New York City. It became a favorite at other delis, served on rye bread and topped with spicy brown mustard. Delis in New York City, like

Katz's Delicatessen Katz's Delicatessen, also known as Katz's of New York City, is a kosher-style delicatessen at 205 East Houston Street, on the southwest corner of Houston and Ludlow Streets on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City.

, have become known for their Pastrami on rye sandwiches. File:Chivito1.jpg, Chivito sandwiches File:Katzs deli corned beef.jpg, A

File:Pastrami-Sandwich.JPG, A

sandwich

References

External links

"Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches"

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

{{Sandwiches American sandwiches Beef sandwiches