French dip sandwich

After all that flavoring in the cooking broth I found that going back to straight plain commercial beef broth to dip the sandwich in tastes better. After half the sandwich was dipped in the plain beef broth, I drank it. 

So, soup and sandwich right there.

The history of this sandwich is unknown for certain. Claimant versions vary. So let's not bother with legend about something so common as roasted beef in sandwich form. It's irrelevant if the insight was accidental, like dropping a sandwich into broth and eating it anyway. People are already having their roasted beef and gravy and bread and presumably potatoes all over the place. The elements are right there on plates all over the world. The idea of dipping would occur several places at once and the idea take hold as it will as a matter of exposure and of exchange. 

The discovery needn't have occurred in France solely and it needn't have be made by a Frenchman although it could have been, but I look at it this way, French bread with its wide open crumb and it natural leaven is unparalleled but the famous loaves last only a day. Those long baguettes that you get must be consumed that night for their excellence is evanescent and the next day the bread will no longer be soft with a thin light tender crusty exterior. That explains why French cooks have so many clever uses for slightly stale bread. They have so many recipes and ideas that are better with stale bread than they are with fresh bread. This dipping sandwich falls into that category: "Clever things French Cooks Do With Slightly Stale Bread." The sandwich's actual factual multiple origins are irrelevant.