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Ham-and-Tongue Sandwiches

A sandwich made with chopped cold tongue and ham, seasoned with paprika and mustard, and buttered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Ham-and-Tongue Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the cold tongue and cold ham very fine.

  2. Pound the mixture in a mortar and season with paprika and mixed mustard.

Assemble

  1. Spread butter on one slice of bread.

  2. Spread the meat mixture on the other slice.

  3. Press the two slices together.

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

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

  4. Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

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

  5. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold tongue
Provides the main meaty filling, with rich flavour and a soft texture once pounded.
Cold ham
Adds savoury flavour and fat that keeps the filling moist and spreadable.
Butter
Forms a fatty layer on the bread that keeps it from soaking up the meat mixture.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that balances the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Pound the mixture in a mortar. Chopping and pounding the meat fine creates a smooth, spreadable texture. Coarse pieces would tear the bread and make the sandwich hard to bite through evenly.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, 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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