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Cheese Sandwiches

A sandwich made with a mixture of hard‑boiled egg, cheese, mustard, and seasonings spread on buttered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Crumble the yolk of the hard boiled egg into a small bowl.

  2. Add melted butter and mix until smooth.

  3. Stir in salt, pepper, mustard, and grated cheese until well combined.

  4. Add vinegar or cold water to achieve the desired thickness.

Assemble

  1. Spread the mixture on buttered bread.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Hard boiled egg
Its crumbled yolk forms the creamy body of the filling.
Melted butter
Adds fat and smoothness, helping the yolk blend into a spreadable mixture.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness, and helps bind the filling.
Mustard
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the yolk and butter.
Vinegar or cold water
Adjusts the thickness of the filling, loosening it to the desired consistency.

The step that matters

Add vinegar or cold water to achieve the desired thickness. Liquid added gradually loosens the thick yolk and butter mixture. Adding too much at once can make the filling runny, so add it a little at a time and check the texture.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cheese, pepper, butter, vinegar, 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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