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Lettuce and Cheese Sandwich

A sandwich made with fresh Philadelphia cheese, crisp lettuce, salad dressing, and unfired bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lettuce and Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Spread fresh Philadelphia cheese thickly on unfired bread.

  2. Dip crisp lettuce leaves in salad dressing and place on the cheese.

  3. Keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Cheese + lettucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together614 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

Fresh philadelphia cheese
Provides creamy fat and moisture that bind the sandwich and keep the bread from drying out.
Crisp lettuce leaves
Adds fresh crunch and a cool, watery texture that contrasts with the soft cheese.
Salad dressing
Adds acidity and savoury flavour that seasons the lettuce and cuts the richness of the cheese.
Unfired bread
Serves as the soft, absorbent base that holds the cheese and lettuce together.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, 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.

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