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Date Sandwiches

A sandwich made with buttered bread and a layer of prepared dates.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Date Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bread into thin slices and trim off any hard crust.

  2. Butter one side of each slice.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread a smooth layer of prepared dates on one buttered slice using a fork.

  2. Top with another buttered slice, butter side down, and gently press together.

  3. Serve immediately on a pretty china plate.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + datestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Butter + datestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

White or graham bread
Provides the soft structure that holds the filling together.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture, and keeps the bread from soaking up the date filling.
Prepared dates
Supply the sweet, sticky filling that gives the sandwich its flavor.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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