I've done deeper research; you are right. There are some cheaper lunch meats on the market that are sold as capicola but authentic Italian capicola is made from a whole cut.

Did you read the link I provided?

Thanks Knucklesandwich. My efforts to explain in the blog are based on what I learned in my formal culinary education. Part of this education was foods history. I also call on my knowledge of the sandwich history during my early years growing up in Phila. Ground meat also known a "forcemeat" has been produced for centuries. Ratbuddy is just plain wrong about capicola. Please check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capicola. No bulling, just pure fact.

You're right Troy. Over time most every thing strays from origins.This is especially true in culinary. Chefs and cooks change recipes a little here and a little there to suit their tastes or give a dish a certain bend that is often thought to improve on the original. Now days it's called "reinventing". As the Philly folks will tell you, go a head and reinvent the HOAGIE or the original GRINDERS all you want but give me the real thing.

Salami is a ground, seasoned and cured meat in a casing. Same way with bologna, capacola, all the sausages and stuff in a casing. Check the etymology on "salami" and you will find it's of Italian origin.

I'll go back to what I said several days ago. The meat contents of the sandwich, an Italian loaf, is ground. Back when in Philly, this was usually sausage or meatballs, served hot, topped with red gravy and either melted provolone or mozzarello. It's not hard to understand how the HOAGIE and similar shaped sandwiches became submarines, subs, torpedos, etc, because that was the shape of the roll. Who outside of Philly knew that Hoagie was a derivitive of Hoggy meaning a shipyard worker at Hogg Island Shipyard where the airport is now? Now I'm hungry. I'll make a grinder with hot Italian sausage, hot roasted Italian peppers in sauce topped with marinara sauce and a pile of shreaded mozz cheese and heated in the oven until the cheese is piping hot.

As a little kid I remember going down to South Philly and walking down the streets off Two St. The stores had all thse meats and cheeses hanging in windows and often outside. The aroma was incredible. If you weren't hungry before you got there, it sure didn't take long to get hungry. Those days are gone. Sad.

I looked at all the pics. Great looking subs and tasty sounding menu as a whole.

Yes, I did spell Mashpee wrong. Where may I find an authentic recipe for fried clams?

Love the Reading Terminal. There is a difference between imported Provolone and domestic. The imported has a bit of an "edge" to it and a more robust flavor. I wouldn't call it sharp just more flavorable. Is Bassett's still serving great ice cream in the Terminal?

The Sandwich Hut looks like a great place to eat but they don't have an authentic Philly Hoagie. Neither the Allitalia nor the Deluxe Grinder are true Hoagies. The roll doesn't look right either.

It's off the Grinder subject, but the best fried Clams I've ever eaten were in the little town of Mashpea.

Finally hawkeye i93 hit on what a GRINDER really is. I was born in Philly in 1940. HOAGIES are room temperature (best for full flavor of meat and the prov) and GRINDERS are hot out of the oven. They are call GRINDERS because the contents of this sandwich on an Italian loaf bread in of GROUND meat. Sausage-hot or mild, meatballs etc. The original grinder meat was topped with hot or mild Italian roasted peppers in a tomato sauce, then a Marinara sauce, then loaded with shredded mozzarella cheese. This was put in a hot pizza oven until the cheese was melted and very hot. The sandwich was then cut on a diagonal. Properly made, this sandwich is right up there with authentic HOAGIES and CHEESE STEAKS. Now, any one have any thoughts about real PEPPERONI ROLLS from North East W. VA? Again, total Italian. These Italians were coal minors instead of the East coast shipyard workers.

After all these blog I got so hungry for an authentic I just had to have one. That meant a 45 minute trip to Augusta Ga to a gourmet shop to get the imported meats and provolone. Boars Head is very good but I'm a perfectionist. Publix bakes some really good hoagie rolls so I bought them there. An authentic hoagie can be made anywhere but you have to follow the original recipe that has been given in the blog. Wash it down with a good beer. Heaven!!!!!

Sorry to hear Chester has gotten in that condition. Sounds like you need a new police chief and mayor.

Haddon House sells Hot Ground Peppers. They are great on a Hoagie and probably what are used in Philly since Haddon House is right across the river from Philly in Medford, NJ.

You are 100% right about why Subway is so successful. On startup of the franchise it was one of the fastest growing in years. Getting back to the original question of what makes the Philadelphia hoagie different I've learned something after talking with folks from around the Northeast that have lived in Italian communities. What makes the Philly hoagie is basically the name. The Italian immigrants were making the sandwich where ever they lived. But we all know the origin of "hoagies" came out of Hog Island Ship Yard. The sad part is over the years outside of Philly (like by the time you get to Delaware or Northeastern Pa) It's hard to find an authentic. hoagie. I have eaten some pretty good Italian Subs in Northeastern WVa around the Fairmont, Clarksburg, Morgantown area. Way back, Italian imigrants came there to work in the mines. What they do have in that area is a fantastic sandwich called a Pepperoni Roll. It's made with Italian bread dough folled out, slices of not to thin pepperoni placed on the dough and then rolled up and baked. To serve, the roll is hinge cut, filled with roasted either hot or mild Italian peppers in marinara sauce (preferably Olivari brand) topped with a pile of good mozzerella cheese and popped in the oven until the cheese is completely melted. This seems to be a regional thing because your won't find it 30 miles out of the area. Ever heard on them in South Philly.

I beleive the answer to that is the diversity of their menu. I don't know what Subway calls the sandwich there but here they call it an Italian Sub. Anyone in your area that would buy one really doesn't like a true Hoagie. I have not been in a Subway in years even though we have only 6 restaurants in our little town, 3 are chains and Subway is one of them..

As the old saying goes, "Nothing stays the same, it gets better or worse". Sorry to here about Wawa but I'm sure there are many great places to get REAL hoagies. I left the area in 1993 and now live in SC almost into Ga. The bread situation in the South is grim. Very hard to get authentic old world bread. The Philly foods I miss the most are the hoagies, chesse steaks and great fried oysters like Kelleys on Mole St. had. You have to have Count size oysters and they are very hard to come by in these parts.

Lee's on Walnut is a gold mine. While attending the Reataurant School (Walnut Hill College) I would go there at least twice a week. There was a Wawa in Cherry Hill that had great hoagies. When I played in the Dick Crean-Joe Burke String Band we would always have a cooler full of hoagies. Not sure where they came from but it would have been in the Bridesburg area.

I guess I'm pretty much a perfectionist when it comes to great hoagies. I think they are at their best as soon as they are made. Refrigerating them will bring the temperature down to 37-39 degrees. At that temp. the ingredients are not a peak flavor and the individual flavor of meat and cheese tend to marry. Also the veggies are no longer at peak. As I got older I would watch carefully the assembly of the best hoagies. Invarible, some bread was torn out of the roll and some EVOO sprinkled on.Just my opinion. Remember when the Hog Island shipyard worker at these it was lunchtime so the hoagie was at room temp. That's when one of those puppies was unwrapped the aroma of all that good stuff would fill the area. A cold sandwich does not relese much aroma. That aroma is what got the attention of my Irish ancesters (and the the non Italian worker) attention.

From Fishtown (Kensington) we moved to Haverford Twp. My Dad got the hoagies out there from a shop on Manoa Rd named Joe's Hoagie Shop. I can still remember how great that place smelled. Olive oil, vinegar and freshly sliced onions. Years later I attended the Restaurant School on Walnut Ave just up from the U. Penn campus. A little shop names Lee's, he had many stores in and around Philly, made authentic hoagies. Man could I woof one down now.

I was born in Philly 71 years ago. Grew up in Fishtown on Mercer St and played in string bands. I grew up on hoagies. When I was a kid most of the older adults (grandparents) still called them Hoggies after the Hog Island shipyard workers that brought the sandwiches for lunch. Here is what an authentics hoagie consists of: Great Italian rolls, good quality extra virgin olive oil, good red wine vinegar, oregano (sprinkled on the onion that is added last with salt and pepper, then the oil then vinegar) meats all thinly sliced--prosciutto, capicola, genoa salami, then provolone cheese. ripe tomato preferable roma. Then lettice 1/4' shred,then, yellow onion sliced paper thin, piled high. I was so young when I first started eating hoagies I don't know if the hoagie peppers were offered or not. I like them (Haddon House is good). If used they go on the tomatoes. Usually some bread was torn out of the inside of the roll so you could get you mouth around it. I you plan to research the original cheese know that it was NOT made with Chez Wiz.