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Minced Sandwich

A sandwich made with minced ham, pickle, mustard, butter, and egg yolk, served between buttered bread slices.

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 ↓

Minced Sandwich

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Cream the butter over low heat in a frying pan.

  2. Add the chopped ham, minced pickle, mustard, beaten egg yolk, salt, and pepper.

  3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir until well combined.

Set and assemble

  1. Pour the mixture onto a large dish and let it cool until firm.

  2. Once firm, cut into slices and place between slices of 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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean ham
Provides the main meaty filling that gives the sandwich its body.
Butter
Creates a rich, fatty base that carries flavor and helps the filling become smooth.
Egg yolk
Acts as a binder that helps the mixture set firm when cooled.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that cuts through the richness of the butter.
Pickle
Adds acidity and a briny crunch that balances the fat.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool until firm. The egg yolk and butter only set as the mixture cools, so slicing too early makes the filling crumble or smear. Let it chill fully before cutting so the slices hold their shape.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, 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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