Why it works: Mustard and bagel work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 8 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
4 sandwichesIngredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Stir together the whipped cream cheese, Dijon mustard and honey in a small bowl until smooth and evenly colored.
Toast the split bagel halves cut side up in a toaster or under a broiler until lightly golden, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Spread the honey mustard cream cheese evenly over the cut side of each toasted bagel half.
Layer the deli ham slices on the bottom halves of the bagels, folding them as needed so they fit.
Close each sandwich with the top bagel halves and serve right away while the bagels are still warm.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Mustard + bageltop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream cheese + honeytop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together172 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
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Mustard + hamtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together747 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Cream cheese + bageltop 7% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together20 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mustard + honeytop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together919 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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