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Adelaide Sandwiches

A sandwich with cooked chicken, ham, Worcestershire and curry sauce, topped with Parmesan butter balls, baked briefly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Adelaide Sandwiches

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine Worcestershire sauce and curry paste; bring to a boil.

  2. Add the diced chicken and ham, mixing well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fry the bread slices in clarified butter until golden, then cut into small circles.

  2. Spread the chicken and ham mixture between two slices of bread.

  3. Mix grated Parmesan and softened butter into a paste; form into walnut‑sized balls.

  4. Place a ball on top of each sandwich.

  5. Bake the sandwiches for 5 minutes in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

Serve

  1. Serve on a napkin as a savory second course.

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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken
Provides the main savory meat filling and bulk for the sandwiches.
Cooked ham
Adds salty, savory flavor and meaty texture to the filling.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds tangy, savory depth that flavors the chicken and ham filling.
Stale bread
Dry bread soaks up less moisture and holds its shape when fried and layered.
Parmesan cheese
Browns in the oven and adds salty, nutty flavor to the topping.
Softened butter
Binds the Parmesan into a paste and adds richness and browning.

The step that matters

Fry the bread until golden. Frying in clarified butter toasts the bread surface, creating a crisp, sturdy base that resists soaking up the moist filling. Clarified butter has no milk solids, so it resists burning at frying heat.

“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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