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Chicken and Ham Sandwiches

A baked sandwich with shredded chicken, minced ham, curry gravy, cheese, and buttered stale bread.

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

Chicken and Ham Sandwiches

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the gravy and curry paste, mixing smoothly.

  2. Add the shredded chicken and minced ham, then boil for 10 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cut the stale bread into shapes and fry in a little butter until golden.

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

  3. Top with a slice of cheese and a small piece of butter, then press down.

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

  5. Serve hot, piled high on a napkin.

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. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main bulk and meaty texture of the filling.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour and firmer texture to the filling.
Curry paste
Supplies the spiced, aromatic flavour that defines the filling.
Gravy
Carries the curry paste and moistens the chicken and ham filling.
Stale bread
Forms the structure that holds the filling, crisping when fried in butter.
Cheese
Melts in the oven to bind the sandwich and add richness.

The step that matters

Boil the filling for 10 minutes. Boiling the gravy, curry paste, chicken and ham together lets the sauce reduce and the spices bloom, so the filling is thick enough not to soak the bread and makes the sandwich soggy.

“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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