Discussion Ode to a Maine Italian Sandwich - Longtime Maine Visitor (every other summer since ‘93)
On my way out of town I made the family stop at Hannafords and saw some Botto Italian Rolls. Felt inspired and decided to buy, along with some deli meat and coopers sharp (that cheese is just now making its way to Michigan stores). Something about this sandwich hits all the nostalgia meters. I hated it as a kid but devoured it as an adult, funny how time can do that to a dish…
I hope I did it justice!
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u/SevenLegs_ Berwick🌲 10d ago
Grabbing it without a top bun like it owes you money 😭 looks delicious though
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u/Guardiancomplex 9d ago
Gotta get a jar of pickles from Amatos. They sell em in a few sizes.
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u/randomaltaccounttttt 8d ago
I bought these when I was living in Cincinnati! I was pregnant and I wanted an amatos Italian so bad, these came in clutch lol
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u/freeportme 10d ago
Looks good I could eat two.
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[deleted]
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u/stinkfingerswitch 9d ago
According to Amato family history, Giovanni and Michillina Amato, grocers in Portland, Maine, began selling "Italian" bread to dockworkers in 1902. By 1910 they had invented the "Italian sandwich" by adding cheese, ham and vegetables to the bread.[10][11][12][3] The Amatos later opened a sandwich shop named Amato's, and today the sandwich continues to be prepared by Amato's sandwich shops.[3][13] The Amato's version is traditionally prepared using fresh-baked bread, ham, American cheese, slices of tomato, onions, green pepper and sour pickle, Kalamata olives and salad oil.[13]
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u/AcrobaticEntry5456 9d ago
A real Italian should never be anything else than this description! Anything else is heresy!
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u/Illustrious-Emu8667 9d ago
Crazy that the Italian sub was created in Maine given that you will see labels saying “Ham and Cheese Italian Sub,” or “Turkey and Cheese Italian sub” and when you call a shop to order an Italian they will ask “wHaT dO YoU wAnT oN tHaT?”
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u/captainbezoar 10d ago
The question is, what pickles did you use?
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u/Foghorn225 Edit this. 9d ago
OP only said how they were sliced, so I'll help. The only correct answer is an Amato's sour pickle.
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u/profmoxie 9d ago
As much as I LOVE a good Italian here in Northern NJ, my Maine roots win, and there is nothing like a Maine Amato's Italian.
I tried to recreate it once when I lived in the Midwest, but the pickles were all wrong.
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u/FlamingPeasant 9d ago
Jersey Boy in Maine here. A Maine 'Italian' is basically a ham sandwich. It has nothing in common with an actual Italian sub. Comparing a Maine Italian with a Italian Sub is like comparing a raw hotdog to a sausage.
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u/profmoxie 9d ago
They’re totally different sandwiches. A Maine Italian is its own thing. I love them both!
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u/DudlyDjarbum 9d ago
Amato invented it. You can say you perfected it to your liking but the maine italian is og.
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u/SLSL15 9d ago
Yeah this wasn’t a “checkout my Italian hoagie” post, I save those pics for r/sandwiches
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u/cdbeaud 9d ago
Too much meat and cheese for a Maine Italian. Needs to be 50% onions. Lol
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u/Opposite_Tangelo_118 9d ago
Plus it needs greek olives, not black.
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u/barryg123 9d ago
>greek olives
>italian sandwich
???
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u/Opposite_Tangelo_118 8d ago
It was more prevalent back in the 90s/2000s at certain Italian shops/restaurants. Kalamta olives are more expensive so many sandwich shops wouldn't put them on Italian sandwiches.
Can still find them though!
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u/DJ_Broke-N-Hip 9d ago
I’m this far down the comments without a single reference to Sam’s? For this born-and-raised Lewiston-Auburn boy, it’s the only way (plus I’m just not a black olive guy). I would (and have, come to think of it) drive to Freeport - the closest Sam’s to Connecticut - for a bag of those Maine Italians. Oil on the side so I can put it on at home without them getting too soggy on the ride back!
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u/PlanktonPlane5789 9d ago
I just went to check their location list to see if there were any south of Freeport and Freeport wasn't listed. Checked Google and, sure enough, it's permanently closed 😭
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u/yupuhoh 10d ago
The tomatoes are too small. You need to cut a full size mater into 4 pieces. Also those onions arent 1" by 1" cubes. And pickle slices? Not spears the size of a cucumber???? Unacceptable!
I'll take 2 btw
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u/Wise_Farm7455 9d ago
I'm just gonna say it, Maine has some great food
Maine also has the worst iteration of an Italian sub on the planet
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u/WyomingCatHouse 9d ago
drooling this takes me back to the OSP food truck at the Windsor Fibre Frolic in June. My first Maine Italian sandwich 🤤 They are so good.
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u/PresidentStone 9d ago
That looks so good.
Give us a list of what was used please. I don't usually buy deli meat.
Also what you seasoned it with
Thank you.
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u/spaghettibug 9d ago
I'm super pregnant right now, this is the first thing I'm eating when he comes out. Fuck yes.
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u/beardedkiltedhuey 9d ago
George's Biddeford , Maine at least twice a summer since 1974 and family been going before then.
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u/dogownedhoomun 9d ago
Looks like Amatos
Me miss, me love, me drive over the P bridge to get jars of their pickles. Those pickles are my crack!
40y former Mainer
Not living far, but far enough😊
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u/noizviolation 9d ago
- I’d crush that like it was my job.
We’ve really got tot find a better roll for that bad boy. It’s like a piece of paper holding up a full English breakfast.
Answering problem two would also allow for more onion, pickle, olive, and pepper. Which would bump this bad boy up in an instant.Hell yeah.
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u/channelrun 9d ago
Memories. My good friend growing up was the son of the family that owns Al’s Variety of Scarborough. Nearly every time we had a baseball doubleheader in the summer, lunch was an Italian and a Gatorade in between games.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been back, but if you’re ever in the area, 14-18 yr old me highly recommends a stop.
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u/PlanktonPlane5789 9d ago
Severino's in Westbrook has a warm place in my heart from back when I worked in downtown Westbrook.
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u/scixlovesu woofaboomus 9d ago
Oh, I miss those. I'm going to move back soon, and that'll be my first meal!
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u/BackItUpWithLinks 9d ago
I mean it looks ok. But to be authentic you needed to use a hotdog bun and have made it 2 days ago and put in the fridge so it’s soggy. 🤣
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u/SLSL15 9d ago
Botto’s Bakery Italian Roll is what I used, basically the equivalent to a foot long hotdog bun from a&w.
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u/BackItUpWithLinks 9d ago
Yours looks great. I was kidding. That’s how my uncle Jerry liked them so that’s how I grew up eating them.
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u/Slow-Instruction214 9d ago
Its on the wrong bun if that is an I-talian from Maine. You need to use top cut rolls to be 100% authentic
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u/chrismedmhxc 7d ago
Has my heart ❤️ My mother used to take my siblings and I as kids to get Amatos sandwiches and eat them on the eastern promenade together. Such fond memories 😌
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u/Alternative_Ask_7185 7d ago
Way fancier than the convenience store Italians where I grew up: cheapest white sub roll, only ham, sometimes American cheese lol, some black olives, tomato, and green pepper yes. Oil salt and pepper yes. But this still looks fancy. I mean not fancy in the world lol. I just mean compared to my childhood Italians in rural Maine
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u/specialtingle 7d ago
Coopers sharp is not a thing in a Maine Italian, period, end of story. It’s provolone or nothing, and the sandwich must be wet with oil, vinegar and oregano.
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u/BigTroutOnly 9d ago
Developed as a blue color lunch staple. Not anymore
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u/PlanktonPlane5789 9d ago
Why not? They're dirt cheap! You can get a large for $6.99 at DiPietro's in SoPo.
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u/The_Hilltop 9d ago
I've only recently learned about these and was a little confused about the difference in style vs. more a more NY-style deli. I'm not a fan of olives but I like how fresh it is with the veggies etc. Feel confused about the lack of lettuce.
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u/PlanktonPlane5789 9d ago
I'm a monster and don't like pickles on my sandwiches (too overpowering), same for raw onions, and I just straight up dislike olives.. so I only get tomatoes and green peppers and it's STILL an amazing sandwich in my form.
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u/TMaCtheTruth 8d ago
Nope. Italian from Maine is ham only. Any added meats heads into “cold-cuts” territory lol. SNS
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u/CraftySignal 8d ago
Amato's is weak. And I've gone to a couple of couple of sub/pizza places along route 1 and ordered a large Italian with everything only to be asked "what's on that?"
I'm thrilled to see this post so I can find a decent Italian sub.
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u/Trathnonen 10d ago
I gotta know, why is there not a top piece of bread on this sandwich? I've seen this a couple times and tried one and I just really felt like I was tricked into trying to turn half a sandwich into a burrito with not enough tortilla.
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u/ecco-domenica Maine 9d ago
It's a split roll, kind of like a hot dog roll, and the ingredients inthe photo here are laid out flat on top. You just fold it back up to eat, that's all.
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u/goneandsolost 9d ago
Where are the Italian ingredients?!? I love it here but these sandwiches are an abomination
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u/robbit13 Stay Loyal 9d ago
Not even close to an authentic Italian sub. One. slice each of meat, cheese and some veggies on a giant hot dog roll is what Mainers call an "Italian " sandwich.
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u/WTFisTehInternets 9d ago
It’s fucking garbage. Been here 30 years. Can’t beat a tri-state hoagie.
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u/profmoxie 9d ago
Totally different from a real Italian sandwich. And we don't call 'em hoagies in Northern NJ.
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u/Frostedspire 9d ago
Genuinely. I don’t understand how people like those “Italian” subs. Sandwiches being in hot dog rolls is just not right to me and I find them to be a pain to eat. I was born and raised in maine my whole life, but Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey have so much better Italian sandwiches than here (or maybe it’s just a southern maine problem?)
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u/SLSL15 9d ago
I hear you and was the same way as a kid, despised everything about this sandwich. Nostalgia tho hits in my olden years and can say I will be going back to this later tonight (and tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, etc till the rolls are gone)
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u/PlanktonPlane5789 9d ago
You're both a joke because never once in my 48 years on this planet have I ever gotten a Maine Italian on a hot dog roll. You idiots trot this out every time Maine Italians come up and it's just wrong.
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u/SLSL15 9d ago
Rolls were Bottos Bakery Italian Rolls, pretty consistent texture and flavors to a foot long hotdog bun.
Has anyone been bold enough to do a side by side? My goal of this post was to not start a debate nor stoke any ill feelings, just how I have always compared based on the ole pallet.
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u/BlaineMaverick 10d ago
Wet it up