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Ham and Nasturtium Sandwiches

A sandwich made with ground ham, chopped nasturtium stems, and mustard dressing, served on buttered bread and garnished with nasturtium petals.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Ham and Nasturtium Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the ground ham and chopped nasturtium stems with the Green Seal Mustard Dressing.

Assemble the sandwiches

  1. Butter the slices of bread before cutting them.

  2. Spread the ham and nasturtium mixture on the bread slices.

  3. Garnish the edges of the sandwiches with nasturtium petals.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Bread + mustardtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

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 savory, meaty body that forms the bulk of the filling.
Nasturtium stems
Add a crisp, peppery bite to the ham filling.
Green seal mustard dressing
Adds sharp tang and moisture that binds the ham and stems together.
Butter
Spread on the bread to add richness and keep the bread from soaking up the filling.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Onionfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

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