Cleveland Polish Boy Sandwich

This sausage sandwich was invented here in Cleveland in the World War Two era by Virgil Whitmore, who owned a barbecue restaurant on Cleveland's East Side. The idea was to put something of a typical grilled kielbasa lunch or dinner of grilled kielbasa, french fries, coleslaw and barbecue sauce all together on a bun. I suggest using hoagie rolls that you can split yourself, and then only cut about 2/3 of the way through the roll. If you can't grill the sausage, broil or fry it until it gets a little brown. This is a BIG sandwich and it is often identified as one of the foods folks should try when visiting Cleveland. It has been touted on national television as one of America's best sandwiches. The napkin industry loves it, because you'll need plenty of napkins. 

Ingredients (per each sandwich):

1 kielbasa (6 to 8 inches)

1 hotdog or hoagie bun

2 to 3 tablespoons coleslaw (not with lots of liquid)

1 "good" handful french fries

2 to 3 tablespoons barbecue sauce

Grill, broil or fry the kielbasa so that it has some brown color to it. Toast the bun lightly, add the ingredients however you choose, as some people like to add the coleslaw or french fries first, then lay the kielbasa on top of that, before adding the other ingredients. I generally put the kielbasa, then the coleslaw, then the french fries and top everything with the barbecue sauce.

 

On this day, I had the Polish Boy Sandwich along with some potato salad ...

WORD HISTORY:

Kielbasa-This word has an "uncertain" origin, so I am going to work backward on its history. In American English, "kielbasa" was first used in the early 20th Century, and in American English it generally means a Polish sausage with rather coarsely ground pork, beef, or a combination of the two, in a casing, and the sausage is seasoned somewhat with garlic and then smoked. Kielbasa often comes in a "U" shape, but it can also come looking more like a hotdog. American English borrowed the word from Polish "kiełbasa," which means "sausage," in general. Polish "likely" got the word from its parent, Old Slavic "kelbasa" (other Slavic languages have forms too), meaning "grilled/roasted meat." This "probably" came from Turkish "kulbasti," with the same meaning, but literally "pressed on the coals/ashes," but transliterated Hebrew "kolbasar," a general term for "meat," is also a possible candidate.    

English French Fries Sandwich: Chip Butty

This sandwich originated in England, but it is not uncommon in other parts of Britain and Ireland. "Chip" comes from the name of the fried potato pieces,* and "butty" comes from the butter slathered over the bread slices. The word "chips" should not be confused with the American word used in reference to very thin slices of potato that are fried (sometimes baked) until crisp, and which are then called "potato chips," as these are called "(potato) crisps" in Britain. You can use bread or rolls for the sandwich, and you can toast the bread a little, which will cut down on sogginess, as a chip butty is likely to require a good number of napkins. You can fry your own potatoes (some prefer to bake them), or you can buy some french fries, steak fries or chips to take home from a restaurant (then keep them in a warm oven, like 225F, until you are ready to place them into the sandwiches), although this may cause your personal invitation to Buckingham Palace to be canceled, IF you have one). You can top the sandwich with ketchup, or you can add some mayonnaise and some chopped herbs like rosemary, thyme or parsley, or you can add British brown sauce, which is very similar to some types of American steak sauce,** or you can give the sandwich a dose of some malt vinegar.

Ingredients (per sandwich): 

2 slices of bread or a split bread roll

butter

potatoes, peeled or unpeeled, cut into slices about 3 inches long and 1/2 inch thick

salt

Let the butter soften somewhat to make it easy to spread. For each sandwich, butter one side of two slices of bread (or the inside parts of a split bread roll) with a good amount of butter. Fry or bake the potato pieces (then salt them to taste, but I use salted butter, so you can skip lots of extra salt if you so choose), or keep restaurant fries/chips warm in the oven until right before you put them into the sandwiches. Put a double layer of warm/hot fries/chips onto the bread or roll. If using a topping, top with ketchup or mayonnaise and herbs or brown sauce or steak sauce or malt vinegar, then place the other slice of bread on top (or close the bread roll) and press down a bit to secure the sandwich. The heat from the potatoes will begin to melt the butter, coating the potatoes in yummy, buttery delight. Have plenty of napkins handy.   

 

* British "chips" are not necessarily the same as American french fries, which are often a thinner cut of potato, sometimes referred to as "shoestring fries," although I'm not certain what the guideline is for the shoestring terminology, if there even is a guideline. British "chips" and American "steak fries" are more similar. The term "chips" of the British usage is not completely unheard of in the U.S., especially in reference to "fish and chips," as some American restaurants market this common combo under that name, while many use "fish and fries," or "fish and french fries."   

** To my knowledge (I know, that's a low standard), there is no mandatory list of ingredients for "steak sauce," but when I hear the term used, I think of "A-1 Steak Sauce," long a popular brand in the U.S., and which is now marketed as "A-1 Sauce," which can trace its roots to the 1800s in England; thus, its similarity to British brown sauce.  

WORD HISTORY:

Bare-This word goes back to Indo European "bhosos," which meant "barefoot, unshod, uncovered." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "bazaz" meaning "naked, uncovered," which gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "bær" meaning "naked, not hidden."^ This then became "bar," before the ending 'e' was added to show the interior vowel was long. Some Germanic relatives also use forms to mean "pure;" often applied to "immediately usable money;" that is, "cash." The verb form was "likely" from the adjective and was "barian" in Old English, and meant, "to make bare, to uncover." Note: Some people believe there was an Old Germanic verb form that was passed down in various forms to its descendants and that's possible. Relatives of "bare" in the other Germanic languages: German has "bar," in modern times Low German uses forms in compounds for "barefoot" as "barft," "boorfoot" and "barfs" (Low German is not a standard language, but rather a number of dialects), and for "cash," as "Boorgeld," Dutch has "baar" ("seemingly" not used much, but used in reference to "cash" (baar geld) and to "gold ingots" (pure gold), Frisian once had "ber," but it apparently no longer uses a form of the word, Danish has "bar," Norwegian has "bar," Icelandic has "ber," Swedish (not standard, dialects only) has "bär."  

 

^ The change of 'z' to 'r' is called "rhotacism," and it was common in Germanic, although for whatever reason, some Germanic dialects did not always follow suit.   

South African Gatsby Hoagie

This hoagie dates to the mid 1970s in Cape Town, South Africa and "supposedly" was named for the then hit movie "The Great Gatsby," starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. I used 8 inch hoagie rolls, but you can use any size, or you can use any oblong bread roll and cut it to the size you prefer. In South Africa the finished hoagies are typically cut into pieces to be shared by several people.  

 

Ingredients (per 8 inch hoagie):

1 eight inch hoagie roll, baguette or other oblong white bread roll

4 slices bologna (aka "baloney")

1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil

1 cup (approximately) cooked french fries 

1 to 3 tablespoons Portuguese style piri piri, also known as peri peri sauce (or Tabasco sauce or other hot pepper sauce)*

1/4 cup ketchup

1/3 cup lettuce, chopped or shredded

If not already split, split the roll lengthwise, open it and let the open side toast for about a minute in a preheated skillet (medium heat). Remove the roll, set it aside briefly, and now heat the oil in the skillet over medium heat. Add the bologna and fry until lightly browned on both sides (about 3 minutes total). Put the meat slices on the roll, top with french fries, then the hot sauce, ketchup and finally the lettuce. Close the sandwich and go for it!

 

* I have a recipe for a type of piri piri at this link:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/09/african-hot-pepper-sauce-pili-pili-piri.html

 

WORD HISTORY:

Bologna-This is the name of an Italian city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and in fact, the city is the capital of that region. "Bologna" is distantly related to "be" and to "bower," words from the Germanic roots of English. The origin of the name is from Indo European "bhu/bu," which meant, "to exist, to be, to live," with various extended meanings. This gave Celtic "bonu," which meant, "base, foundation;" that is, that which provides support for something else to exist;^ thus also, "a settlement." The Celts moved into the area of the future Bologna in the 4th Century B.C.E., calling their settlement "Bona." The Romans later took control of the area and rendered the city as "Bononia," which later became "Bologna" in Italian. While not everyone agrees as to the history of the sausage that bears the city's name, mortadella, a sausage with visible pieces of pork fat, was popular in Bologna and it became the basis for a variation that would come to be called "Bologna sausage" (circa 1600?), and English borrowed the term and simply shortened it to "bologna" in the mid 1800s, but the sausage is almost always pronounced as the variant form "baloney." The sausage has often held a lowly status with some, probably because it is usually made from leftover meat parts, and this likely led to the use of the term "baloney" being used for "nonsense, untrue statements, malarkey," with added emphasis by calling someone's story or statement "a bunch of baloney."    

 

^ See "Etymological Dictionary of Proto Celtic" by Ranko Matasović, Brill Publishing, Leiden (Netherlands) and Boston, 2009   

Canadian French Fries & Gravy: Poutine

Often pronounced like, "poo-teen," in the U.S., but more like, "poo-ten," in Canada, its birthplace (Quebec).

If you mess up the recipe, no problem, just call it, "Putin," send it to Trump, and he'll never utter a word of criticism about it.

You can make this recipe very simply by getting some french fries at your neighborhood fast food outlet and by opening a jar or can or beef gravy. If you enjoy cooking and don't mind a little more involvement, you can buy frozen french fries and cook them per the instructions on the package, or make the fries yourself from scratch (see below). You can fry them in oil, or you can forgo the oil and put the potatoes on a baking sheet and pop them into the oven. Cheese curds can be found in many cheese shops or supermarkets (for Clevelanders, I bought my cheese curds at the West Side Market). Then you can make your own gravy (see below), but you can use store bought beef broth to streamline the gravy making process a bit.  

Ingredients (5 + servings):

2 pounds baking potatoes, skin on, cut into fries
1 1/2 cups cheese curds
2 tablespoons oil + 1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups beef stock/broth
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 heaping tablespoon ketchup
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt (remember, the beef stock will have salt)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

If you want to fix the potatoes from scratch, scrub and rinse the potatoes well, cut a small slice off of the unpeeled potato to form a flat base for the potato. Place the potato on its cut side, then cut through the potato to make about 1/4 inch thick pieces. Cut each of those pieces into uniform fries. Soak the fries in cold water. While the fries soak, add the butter and oil to a sauce pan over low heat. Add the chopped onion and the garlic and let cook, stirring occasionally to prevent burning or heavy browning, until the onion softens. Stir in the flour and let cook a minute or two to take away the raw taste from the flour. Increase heat to medium and gradually add the beef stock, stirring constantly. Add the Worcestershire sauce, the ketchup and the dried thyme, stir to mix. Bring the gravy to a boil and lower the heat to maintain the gravy at a simmer. Let the gravy simmer until it reduces by about a quarter or until it reaches the thickness you want.
 
Heat about a 1/4 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium heat (or if you have a deep fryer, follow the fryer's instructions). Drain the potatoes and dry them well onto paper towels (otherwise, big time spattering ... ah, someone once told me that). Add the potatoes and cook for a few minutes until they are about "half" done. Remove the potatoes and allow them to cool. Turn the heat up a notch and return the potatoes to the hot oil until they are nicely browned. Drain the potatoes on paper towels (you can sprinkle on a little salt, if desired). Put some fries onto a plate, sprinkle some cheese curds over them and ladle or spoon some (or a lot) of hot gravy over the fries and cheese. It doesn't get much better than this ... 

WORD HISTORY:
Imp-This word is distantly related to "boor," "bower" and to the last part of "neighbor" (British: "neighbour"), all words from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to Indo European "bu/bhu," which meant "to be," with extensions: "to dwell, to live upon/on, to grow." This gave Ancient Greek "phyein," which meant, "to make grow," and when given the prefix "em" (=in), it meant, "to implant." This produced the Greek adjective "emphytos" (implanted), which was borrowed by Latin as "impotus" ("implanted;" thus also, "grafted"), which was contracted to "imptus," with the same meanings. This was borrowed by Germanic, but the actual form is unknown, although it gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "impian," meaning, "to implant, to graft." This produced the English noun "impe," meaning, "a shoot from a plant, a shoot grafted to another plant." From this meaning the word began to shift in meaning to, "a child," from the notion of a "young plant shoot." By the second half of the 1500s, the word was used in the expression, "imp (child) of the devil/Satan," which added the meaning to the word of, "a small demon," and thus also, "a mischievous child." German eventually took a different turn with the word, as it has the verb "impfen" (to inoculate^) and "Impfung" (inoculation).  Low German has "empen" (graft, implant), Swedish has "ympa" (graft).

^ A few hundred years ago, the main meaning of the word "inoculate" was, "to graft buds onto a plant," a meaning still around, but more in agriculture than in the general public. It wasn't until later that the idea of  "implanting dead or inactive virus into a person to help prevent illness" came about and then it became the primary meaning in English.