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Ham Sandwiches

A sandwich made with finely chopped cold boiled ham, butter, onion juice, cayenne pepper, and buttered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ham Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the cold boiled ham very fine.

  2. Mix the ham with melted butter, onion juice, and cayenne pepper.

Assemble the sandwiches

  1. Cut the crusts off the sandwich loaf and butter it.

  2. Cut the loaf into very thin slices.

  3. Cover with a buttered slice or roll, pressing the edge firm and tying with ribbon.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Ham + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled ham
Provides the meaty flavor and the bulk of the filling.
Melted butter
Adds moisture and richness so the chopped ham stays soft and spreadable.
Sandwich loaf
Gives structure that holds the filling, especially when cut into thin slices.
Onion juice
Adds savory aroma and flavor to the ham filling.

The step that matters

Pressing the edge firm before tying. Firm pressing compacts the bread and filling so the sandwich holds together and the cut edges stay neat rather than crumbling or spilling filling.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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