<P> Richard E. Byrd took ham and cheese sandwiches on his 1926 polar flight as did 1927 transatlantic fliers Chamberlin and Levine . </P> <P> The origin of the ham and cheese sandwich has been debated for a number of years by culinary intellectuals . The leading theory as to who first started to produce a ham, cheese and bread dish is mentioned in The Larousse Gastronomique 1961 . Here it notes that Patrick Connolly, an 18th - century Irish immigrant to England, sold a bread dish which: </P> <P> "combined the remains of pig, cured and sliced with a topping of Leicester cheese and a kiss of egg yolk sauce (a form of mayonnaise) in a round bread roll . The dish was rather unimaginatively known as a Connolly and is still sometimes referred to as this in some parts of the Midlands in the UK ." </P> <P> In the UK, a common addition to a ham and cheese sandwich is pickle (a sweet, vinegary chutney originally by Branston); the snack is then known as a ham, cheese and pickle sandwich . </P>

Where does ham and cheese sandwich come from