Top 15+ vintage sandwiches that nobody remembers anymore

Prune sandwich

When it comes to popular fruits, prunes generally aren't at the top of many lists. Sure, they exist, but what do you do with them? If you happened to be living in the 1940s or 50s, you might be making sandwiches with them. And yes, there was typically meat involved, too.

If you wanted to take a page out of the 1941 book "500 Tasty Sandwiches," you'd be throwing prunes in a blender with "deviled meat" (that is ham), ketchup, Tabasco, salt, pickles, parsley, and onion, then making a spread to put on buttered bread with some lettuce. (There's also a footnote that says you can cut these sandwiches into whatever shape you want, which is presumably to distract from the prune-and-meat pudding.) Prune sandwiches seem to have hung around for at least a little while, with prune-and-bologna sandwich recipes being published into the 1950s. These, too, called for blending (or chopping and mixing) ingredients into a spread, usually with processed meat.

The Prosperity Sandwich

It's not entirely clear just when the Prosperity Sandwich was created, but we do know who was responsible for this honestly tasty-sounding, open-faced treat that we think needs to make a comeback. St. Louis' Mayfair Hotel is credited with first serving this, and as for the name, it's here that the discrepancy comes in: It's often said to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to promises that the Great Depression will be coming to an end, but as it's also said to have been from the 1920s — therefore perhaps pre-dating the Depression, no one's really sure. 

Whatever this sandwich's backstory is, it's still a pretty delicious-sounding option for serving a sandwich for dinner — especially if you're looking for a way to use up ham and turkey leftovers. Put sauteed mushrooms and shallots on slices of toast, cover with a few slices of your meat of choice, then a cheese sauce made with cheddar and seasoned with Dijon and Worcestershire. There are usually also slices of tomato included, and more cheese on top because we all know that the more cheese there is, the better. Melt, serve, and you'll wonder why this isn't a thing anymore.

Brown sugar sandwich

We have a lot of questions about this one, but we'll get to that. First, let's explore the details, as told in the 1900 text simply titled "The Sandwich Book." There are a lot of interesting things in here — including proof that cheese sandwiches have always been a thing — but it's the brown sugar sandwiches that caught our eye. They're described as being perfect for the kids to take to school, and we have doubts ... but we're not totally against this. 

It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a cup of brown sugar and half a cup of chopped nuts, mixed and put between two slices of buttered bread. Wouldn't that be incredibly dry? How much butter would be needed to make this one tolerable? On the other hand, with enough super-soft, whipped butter, this might be downright delicious. We're not saying that we're going to try it, but we're not ruling out the possibility, either.

Beans sandwich

Some foods seem to lend themselves to making sandwiches, while others ... perhaps, not so much. Beans might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you're thinking about making a creamy sandwich spread, but we'll admit that this one has us reconsidering some of our life choices. Let's take one example from a 1941 cookbook that includes a recipe for a baked bean sandwich. It's basically mashing baked beans, adding pickles, olives, and mayo, and putting it on a sandwich. The mayo might be a little iffy, but a baked bean paste might be a brilliant addition to a pulled pork sandwich.

Other examples of bean sandwiches are perhaps less versatile, like the string bean sandwich that appears in a 1909 book. It utilizes chopped string beans, onions, walnuts, and French dressing to make a sandwich, and that's only slightly stranger than earlier recipes that call for mashing lima beans, adding butter, onion, mustard, olives, and ketchup, and then using that as your sandwich filling.

Johnny Bull

The John Bull is a classic British dish of meat sandwiched by potatoes, which makes sense — particularly as a bit of late-night goodness — but that's not what we're talking about here. The Johnny Bull sandwich we're talking about is one that shows up in "The Sandwich Book" from 1900, and there's only a precious bit of information on this one. It's described as having been a massive hit after becoming the talk of an unidentified, high-society sort of event, and we'll go out on a limb and say it was such a topic of conversation because it's downright weird. 

Want to make your own? Start with boiled beef, turn it into a paste, and mix it with boiled macaroni, celery, onion juice, and mayo. To be fair, it's not too far removed from a chicken salad sandwich, but it's the macaroni that seems like it would make this a carb overload.