Dagwood Sandwich
To qualify as a Dagwood, the double-decker sandwich on toasted bread must minimally have five meats, three cheeses; be dressed with lettuce, sliced tomatoes, dill pickles; and use both mustard and mayonnaise.
Dagwood Bumstead was a central character to the comic strip, Blondie, introduced in September of 1930 that was wildly popular throughout that decade and well into the 1950s, but I was surprised to learn that it is still in circulation today. Its original creator, Chic Young, passed creative control of the comic strip to his son following his death in 1973, and with the exception of some minor modernization, such as Dagwood no longer wearing a hat when he goes to work, the comic strip retains much of its seminal style and pathos.
Dagwood was originally from a wealthy family who disapproved of his marrying Blondie Boopadoop and subsequently disinherited him from the family fortune. Dagwood went from being a rich, bumbling playboy to a penniless, bumbling, middle-class office-worker. Blondie spent the first sixty years as a stay-at-home mom raising their two children, Alexander and Cookie. But in another move toward modernization, Blondie joined the ranks of working mothers by starting a successful catering business in the 1990s.
Practically Every Diner in America in the 1930s and ‘40s had a Dagwood Sandwich on Their Menu
Dagwood was known for taking naps on the couch, engaging in shenanigans with the family dog, Daisy, being consistently late for work at the J.C. Dithers Construction Company and building gravity-defying sandwiches. The Dagwood Sandwich was a staple on diner menus throughout the 1930s and '40s. In the cartoon world, a Dagwood Sandwich might contain a wild list of ingredients that could include spaghetti, lobster and fish. A Dagwood Sandwich, therefore, might best be discerned by its height and outrageousness.
What makes a Dagwood Sandwich in the real world? It is loosely defined as a multi-layered sandwich with a variety of meats, cheeses and condiments skewered with an olive garnish, but the rest is open to interpretation.
In my world, the qualifiers for a Dagwood Sandwich must be a double-decker with three slices of toasted bread, a 50/50 ratio of yellow mustard and mayonnaise, a minimum of five meats that can include sliced roast beef, turkey, pastrami, ham, bologna, salami, and bacon. It must further include at least three sliced cheeses, such as American, Swiss, Colby, Cheddar, Monterrey Jack or Provolone, and must be dressed with lettuce, sliced tomatoes and dill pickle slices.
Finally, the overstuffed sandwich is much easier to eat halved in spite of what you see from Dagwood in the comics, so it must be cut into two triangular pieces. Each half must be skewed with a frilly toothpick topped quintessentially with a pimento-stuffed olive. A baby gherkin is an acceptable alternative.
I'll give license to alter my standards as refrigerator inventory dictates, but much less than the above description and I can't really give it a justifiable Dagwood Sandwich moniker.
Dagwood Sandwich
Ingredients
- 3 slices whole wheat bread, toasted (like, Sara Lee Whole Wheat)
- yellow mustard (like, French's Classic Yellow)
- mayonnaise (like, Kraft)
- 1 oz each of any four different sliced sandwich meats
- 3 slices crispy bacon
- 1 slice each of any of three different cheeses
- 1-2 lettuce leaves (Green Leaf is best, but Iceberg or Romaine will do)
- 3-4 thin ripe tomato slices
- 4-5 dill pickle slices (like, Vlasic Hamburger Dill Chips)
- fine sea salt & freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- 2 whole green olives stuffed with pimentos (2 cornichons or baby gherkins may be substituted)
Instructions
- After toasting the bread, make your first layer with mayonnaise on two slices, and prepare a sandwich using alternating layers of two meats, two cheeses and the bacon.
- When you cap the sandwich, proceed with applying mustard to the two sides of the next layer. Add two meats with one slice of cheese in between them, then the lettuce and tomato.
- Salt and pepper the tomato, then lay out four or five dill pickle slices.
- Insert a frilly toothpick with the skewered olive or gherkin into two opposing diagonal parts of the sandwich and using a very sharp knife, slice the Dagwood corner to corner into two triangles.
- Serve with potato chips.
