Skip to main content

Minced Sandwiches

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Shallot and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 859 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Minced Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the bread slices in oil until crisp.

  2. Cut the ham or tongue and game or poultry into thin slices.

  3. Chop the pickled gherkins and olives into small pieces, keeping equal proportions.

  4. Mince the mixture finely and combine with shallot vinegar, oil, mustard, and sugar.

  5. Spread the mixture on the toast and top with another piece of bread.

  6. Cut into neat shapes and serve.

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. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Olive + shallottop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, ham, olive, vinegar, mustard, sugar):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Lettucefits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, ham, olive, vinegar, mustard, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

You might also like