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Oriental Sandwiches

A sandwich made with nuts, dates, grated cheese, butter, and milk or cream spread between thin bread slices.

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

Oriental Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped nuts, dates, grated cheese, and butter.

  2. Add milk or cream gradually to soften the mixture for spreading.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the mixture between thin slices of bread.

  2. Cut into desired shapes and 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

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

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Dates
Provide natural sweetness and a soft, sticky texture that binds the filling.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and creaminess that helps the filling hold together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, spreadable texture.
Chopped nuts
Add crunch and a toasty, savory note that contrasts the soft filling.

The step that matters

Adding milk or cream gradually. Liquid softens the mixture so it spreads, but too much makes it runny and it can soak into the bread. Adding it in small amounts lets you stop at a spreadable consistency.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against dates, cheese, butter, milk, 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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