Name: Mixed Meat Sandwiches
Ingredients: cold ham; cold tongue; cold chicken; ½ cup melted butter; 1 tablespoon salad oil; 1 tablespoon mustard (optional); 1 beaten egg yolk; pepper to taste; bread (thinly sliced and buttered)

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Mixed Meat Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the cold ham, tongue, and chicken finely.

Make the filling

In a bowl, mix the chopped meats with melted butter, salad oil, mustard (if using), beaten egg yolk, and pepper.

Assemble

Spread the mixture on thinly sliced and buttered bread.
Optionally, prepare using ham alone.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Egg yolk binds the chopped meats into a spreadable filling.
Melted butter: Adds richness and moisture so the filling spreads smoothly and stays soft.
Cold ham: Provides the main savoury meat flavour in the filling.
Cold tongue: Adds meaty flavour and a richer texture to the filling.
Cold chicken: Adds mild meaty flavour and bulk to the filling.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, chicken, butter, egg, pepper, bread):

Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits better
Potatofits about as well
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, chicken, butter, egg, pepper, bread. 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.