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Salads and Sandwiches

A sandwich made with bread, mustard, cayenne pepper, celery, butter, and cheese, served on a silver dish with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Salads and Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the celery mixture

  1. Chop the white part of a head of celery very fine.

  2. Pound the celery in a mortar with a little butter; season with salt.

  3. Oil a little butter, add pepper, salt, mustard, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

  4. When the mixture is nearly cold, use it for buttering thin slices of bread.

  5. Do not butter the bread; the mixture contains enough butter.

Assemble the sandwiches

  1. Use this mixture to butter thin slices of bread.

  2. Before it is quite cold, sprinkle the bread with grated Parmesan cheese.

  3. Place a thin slice of cream cheese between the bread slices.

  4. Put two slices of bread together and press them.

  5. When cold, cut the sandwiches into squares or triangles with a very sharp knife.

Garnish and serve

  1. Pile the sandwiches on a silver dish.

  2. Surround the dish with plenty of fresh parsley.

  3. Place a few fresh mushrooms whole, stalk and all, round them, as if they are growing out of the parsley.

  4. Place plenty of fresh green parsley round the dish.

  5. If using hard-boiled eggs, take the end of the white, put a little heap of Parmesan cheese in each cup.

  6. Place a few of these (egg cups) round the base of the dish on the parsley to show the sandwiches' composition.

  7. Pile the sandwiches on a silver dish.

  8. Surround the dish with parsley.

  9. Place a few slices of cream cheese cut round the size of a halfpenny round the base.

  10. Stick a little piece of the yellowish-white leaves of the heart of celery in each piece.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

484Calories
14 gProtein
2 gFat
100 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894. 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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Bread + mustardtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Bread + celerytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,110 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and moisture, and binds the celery and mustard into a spreadable mixture.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild vegetable flavour to the filling.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the butter and cheese.
Parmesan cheese (in the method)
Adds savoury, salty flavour and a sprinkle that adds depth to the bread.
Cream cheese (in the method)
Adds creamy texture and mild richness between the bread slices.

The step that matters

Cut the sandwiches when cold, with a very sharp knife. Cutting while warm can squash the bread and smear the filling. Letting the sandwiches cool firm up the butter and cheese so the cut edges stay clean.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, celery. 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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