Name: Sandwich Butter
Ingredients: ½ cup good butter; ½ cup grated ham or tongue; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 2 teaspoons mustard; 1 tablespoon vinegar; brandy (for soaking paper)

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sandwich Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

Mix together equal parts of butter and grated ham or tongue.
Season with salt, cayenne, mustard, and vinegar.

Pack and store

Pack the mixture into small earthen jars.
Cover each jar with paper soaked in brandy.
Seal tightly with a cover or a wet bladder tied over the top.
Store in a cool, dry place.

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.

Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together747 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Provides fat and richness, carrying the flavours and giving the spread a smooth body.
Ham or tongue: Supplies the meaty, savoury flavour that forms the base of the spread.
Mustard: Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the butter.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps balance the fat.

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Shallotfits about as well
Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, pepper, vinegar, brandy. 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.