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Something for Lunch

A toasted bread sandwich spread with a cheese, butter, egg yolk, mustard, cayenne, and salt mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Something for Lunch

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cheese mixture

  1. Break the cheese into bits and pound it with the butter until smooth.

  2. Add the egg yolks, mustard, cayenne, and salt; mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Toast the bread slices.

  2. Spread the cheese mixture on the toasted bread.

  3. Place the bread in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 5 minutes.

  4. Serve immediately.

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

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 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

Cheese
Melts into the mixture to give the toast its rich, savory flavor and creamy body.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the cheese mixture smooth and spreadable and carries flavor.
Egg yolks
Emulsify and bind the mixture, adding richness and helping it set lightly when heated.
Bread
Provides the crisp toasted base that holds the cheese mixture.

The step that matters

Baking the toast for only 5 minutes at 400°F. Heat must be high enough to melt and lightly set the cheese and egg yolks before the toast dries out. Watch closely, since too long can make the topping tough, greasy, or scorched.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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