Jam sandwich (food)


A jam sandwich is usually composed of two slices of bread with jam in the middle. It is normally consumed at lunchtime or as a snack. In Scotland, they are also known as pieces and jam, or jelly pieces.
If another spread is added, particularly peanut butter, it becomes a variation of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Origin

Jam sandwiches are thought to have originated around the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The jam sandwich was an affordable food. One plausible reason for this was its ingredients cost little to manufacture; and due to taxes being lifted on sugar in 1880, it became widely available as a cheap foodstuff.
Miners in Yorkshire and South Wales would take a jam sandwich and piece of cheese with them down the pits; these would cut through the dust and give different textures and flavours.

Ingredients

Recipe

  1. Put one slice of bread on the plate.
  2. Get a knife and use it to spread a little bit of butter evenly onto the bread. Make sure to not add too much butter!
  3. Get a knife and use it to spread the jam evenly from the jar onto the bread.
  4. Place a second slice of bread on top of the bread and jam.
  5. Slice the sandwich in half or in multiple slices.

In popular culture

The popular Scottish folk song "The Jeely Piece Song", which appeared in the 1960s, humorously describes the effect of new social housing policies on the eating habits of Scottish youngsters. The lyrics were written by Adam McNaughton, and it was sung to the tune of "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight?)". It was performed by Matt McGinn and many others.
The musical group Jethro Tull referenced a jam sandwich in their 1971 song "Up the 'Pool." 'The 'Pool' is short for Blackpool, Lancashire, in the north of England, and singer Ian Anderson adopts a Lancashire inflection and colloquialisms: "I'm going up the 'Pool/ from down the smoke below/ to taste me mum's jam sarnies/ and see our Auntie Flo."
In Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic, Linus is fond of what he calls "jelly-bread sandwiches".