15 Popular Sandwiches Of The 1970s

The food of the '70s was very much about convenience. Frozen food and meals became much more popular for their ease and time-saving benefits. Hamburger Helper was introduced to the market and started stocking pantries. Cup of Noodles launched and changed the lunch hour. Fast, cheap, and hopefully tasty was the meal of the day every day and a definitive sign of the times. Divorce was on the rise — almost doubling the numbers that had previously been seen. And married or single, women were entering the workforce at a high rate. It was the era of the latchkey kid when Gen X was formed. Food needed to be easy to make because many times, children were making it

When parents were home, they had put in a hard eight hours and didn't want to stand over a stove for a few more. So, there were a lot of questionable food choices being made, and many of them were by children. That doesn't mean we didn't hit a few out of the park, creating some proper vintage recipes that deserve a comeback. But not all these sandwiches would make that list. While there are many out there that will remember, relive, and relish some of these tastes, they're not for everyone. You're going to see some flavor profiles you've never imagined before and some you'll wish you hadn't. Although there will be those that tempt your taste buds into testing, and you can thank us later.

You may think it can't get much easier than this three-ingredient sandwich, especially if you are working with sliced olives. And you would be correct. Bread, olives, and some softened cream cheese are all you need to make this beloved (by quite a few) '70s sammie. Salty, creamy, and comforting, you'll see most older photos of this sandwich using green olives, but fans say to feel free to use your olive of choice, stuffed or sans. Either way, you are sure to be delighted by this filling little treat.

The Tuna Melt and Tuna Boat Melt are only slightly different, but both are easy, affordable, and iconically '70s. Canned tuna is the cheap protein of choice here, mixed with your version of salad mix-ins (mayo, pickles, mustard), topped with cheese, then baked until melted to an ooey gooey yumminess. Here is the difference. A tuna melt is generally closed-faced. A tuna boat is a split and hollowed-out hoagie roll or demi baguette, the tuna scooped into the hollow, cheesed, baked, and then cut and served open-faced.

Olive loaf, made with processed meat, sliced green olives, and bright red pimentos is not to be confused with pimento loaf (which was made with pickles and pimentos). This is a popular loaf meat whose slices were slapped between countless pieces of white bread and slathered with Miracle Whip (or yellow mustard) back in the day to satisfy many a '70s palate. "Just that on white Wonder Bread with mayo," said one nostalgic Facebook fan. It can be difficult to find in stores now, so checking your local deli counter is your best bet.

There is such a rich history surrounding Sloppy Joe's, regardless of which storytelling you rely on. Some say Sloppy Joe's originated in Cuba, while others point to Key West, and still others Iowa. Maybe it wasn't even a Joe at all. It could have been a Jim. What we do know is that many looked forward to Sloppy Joe day in school even back in the '40s, where ground meat and a tomato sauce base was deliciously slopped onto a bun. The household Sloppy Joe became a popular dinnertime staple during the '70's after Hunt's introduced Manwich.

The club sandwich is another handheld favorite that has a very colorful history behind it and many people scrambling to take credit for the creation. For those of us in the '70s, it was a fancy BLT that had ham and turkey added and was cut into little quarters, generally served with a side of honey mustard, and always with a pickle. Even the Pioneer Woman is reminded of the '70s by the club sandwich, one of her personal favorites, to which she adds avocado. We say try adding a deviled egg!

This fancy summer coastal food (think New England) left the heights of society and began being served in small diners and roadside shacks during the '70s. You could say that lobster was on a hot roll! And that hot roll was butter, filled with fresh shredded lobster (which is why this is a coastal cuisine), and delicately slathered with creamy mayonnaise. It is incredibly refreshing, with freshly squeezed lemon on top, especially in the heights of summer. And if you haven't had one, head north!

The '70s didn't invent the cheesesteak. That started back in the '30s. But the reason the Philly cheesesteak got so popular is due to the '70s cheesesteak rivalries. You had Pat's King of Steaks and Gino's steaks right across the street from each other, slinging the best beef. North Philly saw the rise of Dalessandro's, and the west got Jim's. The rivalry was something that put a spotlight on the steak and cheese delicacy, and soon it began popping up all over the country. And we ate it up. (Still do too)

Sadly, creamed beef on toast is an old-school diner food that you are not going to find on any menus these days. It was most widely fed to soldiers during the war before hitting the diner menus and dining room tables. You start with thinly sliced dried beef, which tastes very similar to jerky. That gets mixed into white gravy and then spread over toasted white bread. Yum! These days you're more likely to get people to try biscuits and gravy, but there was a time when this was a dinner delicacy.

Bologna in the '70s had a first name and a second name. We all knew what it was and how to spell it. We still do! And Oscar Meyer deserves it. Not only were we given a variety of loaf meats and sliced deli meats to keep at home, ready to adorn our white bread at a moment's notice, we were given the gift that was bologna, and it was literally wrapped with a red bow. It was iconic. It was delicious. And we loved it.

Where the club sandwich is a wee bit fancy with its little quarters, it's nowhere near as fancy as the Monte Cristo. A batter-dipped, deep-fried, gorgeous golden brown sandwich, with silky, melted cheese, ruby red preserves, sometimes syrup, and a dusting of powdered sugar. Overly indulgent and utterly scrumptious, it seems we have Disneyland's Blue Bayou Restaurant for putting a spotlight back on this fancy sammie (specifically the deep-fried one) back in the late '60s so that we could enjoy it in the '70s.

When it comes to liverwurst, you either had a love, hate, or complete refusal to even try it relationship. But those that did would eat it to this day. One Facebook fan went reminiscing with some other GenX folk about ye old liverwurst sandwich, saying, "I loved it with thin slices of onion with mayo on a couple of slices of marble rye or pumpernickel." And this had most of the group drooling. If you're feeling FOMO over not having tasted what some call a treat, you can still get liverwurst.

Back in the day, there wasn't much fusion food other than Tex-Mex. So, putting pineapple on ham seemed fancy and worldly. And that made it easier to sell as a dinnertime sandwich option. Bonus: it was even cheaper if you could get away with a nice cut of fried Spam. In either version, it was served best when covered with melted Swiss and served on toasty bread. You still can't beat a hot ham and Swiss on a nice roll, and sweet with salty is always a chef's kiss.

The St. Paul sandwich, which you might call the Egg Foo Young sandwich, was purportedly invented in St. Louis by a Chinese American chef back in the '40s. Whether you want to believe that is up to you; the STL will still call this sandwich their own. Made up of a fried egg foo young patty, pickles, lettuce, tomato, and mayo on white bread (some even add a little gravy), this sandwich became incredibly popular in the '70s. But who doesn't love a good, loaded fried egg sammie?

Of course the '70s had the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's a top classic American sandwich. But that's not the only thing we liked to pair with our PB. For one, the '70s had Koogle, flavored peanut butter spread that came in chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, and banana. We also had peanut butter and mayonnaise sammies. And those could also contain apple slices, bacon, and even pickles. Oh yes, we also tried cheese. Marshmallow fluff and bananas were popular toppings. Basically, we ate peanut butter and anything sandwiches.

If you lived through the '70s it's very doubtful you don't remember eating canned deviled ham. Even Alton Brown can recall childhood memories of the infamous food. And that means you also remember the creepy little mascot that all GenX know as the Underwood Devil. And that Underwood Devil created a "smorgasbord" of deviled flavors (meaning highly spiced and generally cut small or smashed together) like ham, liverwurst, chicken, and corned beef that the whole family could slather on white bread for a tasty, filling meal day or night.