If I asked for a sandwich and I received a hamburger in its stead, I would assume the person I beckoned for my request was suffering from blunt force trauma. Sandwich used generally excludes hamburgers, look at any restaurant menu and you'll notice the cheeseburger isn't listed under "sandwiches" with the foo foo avocado chicken ciabatta.

So I've been on this site since its inception and have yet to state my opinion on this heated topic, so here it is.

A hamburger is a sandwich. It was always a sandwich. What the hell is wrong with you people?

@claybrez: Wait a minute, does anyone ever actually goes into restaurants and orders just A Sandwich? That sounds insane. There's so many types of sandwiches that the odds of them serving the correct sandwich in the first place is infinitesimally unlikely! They might serve me a PB&J (or worse, a cucumber sandwich) when what I want is roast beef. A hamburger would be merciful in that situation.

Hamburgers are hamburgers, sandwiches are sandwiches, Rubens are Rubens. Words have different meanings, so as not to confuse people. You are all welcome :P

I feel like this is a very similar issue to the is chocolate candy and are popsicles ice cream debates.

Yes. Next question

I wouldn't call the cheese monstrosity I consumed yesterday to be a mere "sandwich" but to each their own.

I could quite happily live with never seeing this topic again.

I guess they are sandwiches, not sure though :)

Thanks for making me visit Falkirk....'s wikipedia page. I forgot they built those horse heads.

People, the madness must end. With everything else wrong in the world, let me have both sandwiches and burgers without fig.... oh this is an old topic. Burgers are totally sandwiches. Deal with it duders.

i don't think it is, though it's an interesting debate. The burger is sandwiched between two pieces of bread, which by definition would appear to make it a sandwich. However, it has enough unique features like the toasted bun, the ground beef burger, the salad and condiments etc. to give it it's own separate identity as a hamburger IMO.

It's a sub-genre of sandwich. It's not that hard to grasp.

Yes.

A sandwich is a food item consisting of one or more types of food, such as vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein two or more pieces of bread serve as a container or wrapper for some other food.

If you put a hamburger (literally hamburger, so the meat) in between regular slices of bread you'd call it a sandwich. We call baguettes with stuff in between the slices sandwiches. Same for every other type of bread, but somehow not burger shaped bread? It is two or more pieces of bread with stuff on it. It's a sandwich. Folded pizza is not a sandwich because it's not bread. If you put tomato sauce, molten cheese and some meats on two slices of bread you would absolutely call it a sandwich.

finally frank and honest discussion about the REAL issues.

pizza is still an open face sandwich tho

Yes

@humanity: cheesestrosity? im sure many a ryckert would be down.

Hamburgers are sandwiches but Hot Dogs ARE NOT SANDWICHES

@zevvion: Folded pizza is not a sandwich because it is just one pizza. If you had two pizzas with something in between them, you would then have a pizza sandwich. Arguably, two pizzas placed on top of each other could technically be called a sandwich with the pizza topping serving as the filling.

@shindig: You can say 'pizza sandwich' for the same reason you can call it a sandwich when there's a person on top of you and you're on top of someone else. It's not a real sandwich. Pizza crust is not bread. Two pizza's on top of each other is not a sandwich.

It'd be more sandwich than this hypothetical gangbang you speak of. I do not have a bread-dough base but a pizza does.

I don't know how this necro thread came back to life, but yes burgers are sandwiches. Hot Dogs I feel should be categorized under either other foods that have a hot dog bun (Italian Sausage, Bratwurst) or foods that have a folded exterior to maintain what's inside, like tacos or gyros.

i'm totally down with hot dogs being put under the taco family.

Pizza dough is actually pretty much bread because it's made from yeast.

That said two pizzas on top of one another could not be called a sandwich.

@shindig: a threesome is a gangbang? I need to consult the Giant Beast specialists about this.

Time is a never ending circle.

If pizza dough is considered bread, then it would absolutely be a sandwich. Except I wouldn't call it bread for the same reason I wouldn't call a tortilla wrap bread. It is missing the traditional 'breading' part. Just because it comes from dough doesn't make it bread. We can acknowledge donuts are made from dough, but they are not a bread-type food.

A tortilla is skillet fried bread.

A donut is a deep fried bread.

They all come from bread but are prepared differently and thus take on different properties and in turn a different name. In the same vein, simply having two pieces of "bread" with something in the middle doesn't instantly make it a sandwich, because it's the preparation that gives the meal it's unique properties. A hamburger is not a sandwich because it's prepared in a way that gives it a different properties than a sandwich. Two slices of chicken parm pizza on top of one another are not the same thing as a chicken parm sandwich because an open faced parm sandwich couldn't be called a chicken parm slice of pizza. A bologne sandwich heated up would not be called a bologne hamburger. These terms are not loosely interchangeable.

At the end of the day though people will call things what they will, even if they are unequivocally wrong, so it is what it is.

@humanity: You're the one who is wrong though. The literal definition of a sandwich is one or more pieces of bread with filling of other foods in between them. It has nothing to do with preperation. Donuts are not considered bread but more confectionery. I suppose a wrap is in literal terms a type of bread though. But a hamburger is absolutely, 100% a sandwich.

@zevvion: By your own definition you are wrong in this case because a hamburger isn't a meat patty in between two pieces of bread. It is a patty in between two hamburger buns, which are not the same thing as two pieces of bread, despite being derived from the same ingredients, much like a donut or a pita bread is. If you want to say a hamburger is 100% a sandwich then a donut is 100% confectionery "bread" or a go-kart is just an open faced car, or we can even say a helicopter is just a plane that flies sideways.

If we are going to completely forego all proper nomenclature and just start intermixing definitions as we see fit then sure, everything can be everything I suppose.

@humanity: No, because hamburger buns are bread. Baguettes are bread. I already admitted tortilla wraps are bread. I'm not wrong just because I adjusted my stance a bit after this discussion went forward. Two pieces of bread with filling in between is the definition of a sandwich and that's what a hamburger is.

The other comparisons you're making are not really applicable. They are different situations and I didn't claim a go-kart is an open faced car. That's just a different discussion entirely and I don't know enough about cars to have an opinion on that. I do know helicopters are are not planes. The literal definition of a plane requires it to be a fixed wing aircraft, which a helicopter is not.

@gman: Hamburgers were invented by a guy from Hamburg

Also not a sandwich because a hamburger is still a hamburger even if it's not in a bun.

The only reason this discussion exists is because burgers are so ubiquitous that they are just referred to as burgers. There is literally nothing that is so unique about a beef patty between some bread that makes it not a sandwich.

And if you think of bread as simply being slices of spongy stuff in a bag you should probably get out more.

This topic is never gonna die is it. This website will forever have to endure people erroneously believing that Hamburgers aren't sandwiches. They are.

@imhungry: dissenting opinion!

@imhungry: Says the duder with a hotdog in his avatar... :P

It's back!

@zevvion: Of course you are not wrong because you adjusted your stance. You are wrong because you are misappropriating terminology. Maybe it's a language barrier situation, I'm not sure, I don't know how else I could possibly explain it. It's not that big of a deal though so no worries.

Every burger is a sandwich but not every sandwich is a burger.

But I'm not misusing it. The definition of a sandwich is as I've stated and a hamburger falls under that definition. I don't think this is an issue of a language barrier. This is me using a definition and you're thinking that definition shouldn't apply to this even if it falls under the exact description. I've stayed true to my logic: a definition defines what something is. That's my angle. So I wouldn't call a helicopter an airplane, because the definition of both dictates that it isn't.

I'm having a hard time coming to terms with people calling the ground beef itself "hamburger". That make no sense to me. And the bun a "hamburger bun" like that's a special kind of bun? Like if I used an onion roll it suddenly wouldn't be a hamburger?

Literally the first sentence in the Wikipedia entry for pizza: Pizza is a yeasted flatbread generally topped with tomato sauce and cheese and baked in an oven. It is commonly topped with a selection of meats, vegetables and condiments.

Pizza dough is absolutely bread, ergo, pizza is an open faced sandwich.

Hamburgers deliver food in a sandwich like fashion. A hamburger is a hamburger, but it is also a sandwich.

Hamburger is a sandwich. But would love to get it put through its paces with SCIENCE.

@jaycrockett:Well, there is a range of breads that qualify as hamburger buns, but if you just use regular sandwich bread it's no longer a hamburger but is instead a patty melt. On the other hand, to @humanity 's point, if you put a piece of fried chicken between two hamburger buns, you get a chicken sandwich, not a chicken burger.

Well you can make a sandwich out of a burger. I've eaten burgers without buns quite a lot over my lifetime.

@yesindeed: As I said, if it is indeed considered bread then yes, it is a sandwich. The problem is that pizza is a singular food item, a sandwich demands to be the product of a separation of bread with filling in between or on top. You don't bake the pizza crust and then add ingredients to it later. You get raw dough to put the ingredients on top and bake the entire thing in one go.

Contrary to what people think though, grey area's don't exist. If you were to bake a pizza crust (and if we assume that the crust is bread), then put the stuff on top then it would be a sandwich. But it would no longer be pizza.

Never have been, never will be. That's why they have their own menu section.