20 June 2024 , 05:00
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The club sandwich is a popular choice of delicacy on both sides of the Atlantic having first been referenced in New York in the 1880s.
Also known as a clubhouse sandwich, it consists of chicken, bacon and tomato, served up with lettuce and mayonnaise. While its similar BLT counterpart is an obvious acronym, the meaning of 'club' continues to confuse foodies.
One X (formerly Twitter) user thought they cracked the code recently as they proudly declared: "Mind-blown. I've only just learnt that Club Sandwich means Chicken and Lettuce Under Bacon." It seems he wasn't the only one to make the realisation at a ripe old age, meanwhile.
"Yeah I discovered that at the age of 49 - I'd always just assumed it was invented in a famous club somewhere in America," another X user penned in response. A second added in shock: "My God. Blown my mind too that!!! Love learning a random fact like that."
A third joked: "This is the information we come to the net for. I can close the app today." And a fourth added: "Never even considered that. Hilarious. I just thought it was developed in some fancy club."
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Others took to the post to cast doubts over the apparent meaning, explaining the term was a "backronym" - defined as "an acronym deliberately formed from a phrase whose initial letters spell out a particular word or words, either to create a memorable name or as a fanciful explanation of a word's origin."
"I doubt that very much," another person declared. "We appear to have a backronym - an acronym after the event." A second agreed: "No it doesn't, that's a backronym where people make an acronym fit something that already exists." And a third X user agreed: "It's a backronym, I'm afraid. It was invented at a club, most likely the Union Club of NYC."
Indeed, the most popular theory of where the name came from is the 19th century clubhouses in New York. The Saratoga Club House in Saratoga Springs claims it introduced the sandwich in 1894. This is the exclusive gentlemen's only gambling house where the classic "potato chip", or crisp, is rumoured to have been created too.
However, the earliest known reference to the sandwich predates even that. A recipe from the exclusive Union Club of New York City appearing in The Evening World on November 18, 1889, states: "Have you tried a Union Club sandwich yet? Two toasted slices of Graham bread, with a layer of turkey or chicken and ham between them, served warm."