Name: Hot Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 day old bread; butter; cream cheese (or orange marmalade)

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 ↓

Hot Cheese Sandwiches

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

1 day old bread
butter
cream cheese (or orange marmalade)

Directions

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

Butter one side of the bread.
Place a very thin slice of cream cheese on the unbuttered side. Alternatively, use a thin layer of orange marmalade.
Assemble the sandwiches and place them on a baking sheet.
Bake in a very hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + cream cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,747 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Bread + cream cheesetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together166 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).