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How We Cook in Tennessee

A set of old Tennessee sandwich fillings made from cheese, peanuts, eggs, or maple sugar, spread between slices of bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 26 ingredients
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Why it works: Nuts and peanut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese and olive filling

  1. Mix Neufchatel cheese to a paste with equal quantities of cream and salad dressing.

  2. Spread the paste between two slices of bread and cover thickly with chopped olives.

  3. Mix equal parts grated cheese and chopped English walnut meat.

  4. Season the cheese and nut mixture with a little salt and cayenne.

  5. Mix with mayonnaise and use on buttered bread.

  6. Butter the bread before slicing it, and slice it very thin.

Make the egg and vinegar filling

  1. Crumble the hard boiled egg yolk into a small bowl.

  2. Mix the yolk with the melted butter until smooth.

  3. Add salt, pepper, mustard and grated cheese, mixing well.

  4. Add vinegar or cold water until the filling reaches the proper thickness.

  5. Mix half cup of vinegar, yolks of two eggs, five or six teaspoons of sugar, a lump of butter, salt and pepper, and one small cup of mashed peanuts.

Make the peanut filling

  1. Grind freshly parched peanuts in a meat chopper.

  2. Melt butter, then rub it into one cup of ground nuts until a paste forms.

  3. Spread the peanut paste on bread.

  4. Grind one quart of roasted peanuts in a food chopper.

  5. Put one pint of new milk with two tablespoons butter and one tablespoon flour rubbed in into a double boiler.

  6. Cook until thickened.

  7. Add salt, cayenne, black pepper to taste, and half teaspoon sugar.

  8. Let cool and add the peanuts.

  9. Spread between slices of bread and cut in any shape.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1177Calories
42 gProtein
50 gFat
142 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 15 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Peanut1 oz (28g)161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Maple Syrup1 tbsp (20ml)52
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Nutsnot in our table0
Roasted Peanutnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. See the original page.

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. Nuts + peanuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together81 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Mustard + peanuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together102 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks bind the filling and add richness and a smooth, thickened body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, spreadable texture.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the peanut filling becomes smooth and spreadable.
Roasted peanuts
Provide the main nutty flavour and the body of the peanut filling.
Neufchatel cheese
Forms a creamy paste that holds the spread together and adds tang.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Flour thickens the milk only when it is heated and stirred long enough for the starch to swell. Undercooked milk stays thin and runny, so the filling will not spread or hold its shape.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, pepper, mustard, butter, vinegar, sugar, peanut):

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, pepper, mustard, butter, vinegar, sugar, peanut. 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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