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Hot Cheese Sandwiches

A toasted sandwich filled with American cheese, seasoned with salt and paprika, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Hot Cheese Sandwiches

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut bread into 2-inch square slices.

  2. Remove a smaller square from the center, leaving a ½-inch thick border.

  3. Fill the center with a piece of American cheese.

  4. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and paprika.

  5. Cover with a thin slice of bread to form a box.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the top with melted butter or beaten egg white.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

  3. Serve very hot on hot plates.

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 + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the box-shaped case that holds the cheese while it bakes.
American cheese
Melts into a soft, creamy filling inside the bread frame.
Melted butter or egg white
Helps the top brown in the oven, adding color and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Brushing the top before baking. Butter or egg white promotes browning through milk solids and proteins. Skipping it leaves the top pale and dry, so the bread may not color evenly.

“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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