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Chicken and Tongue Sandwiches

A sandwich made with cold boiled tongue and chicken mixed with butter, egg yolk, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.

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

Chicken and Tongue Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop equal quantities of cold boiled tongue and chicken.

  2. Mix with ½ cup melted butter, 1 beaten egg yolk, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, and 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce.

Assemble and trim

  1. Spread the mixture over buttered bread.

  2. Trim off all the crust.

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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled tongue
Provides the main meaty flavour and texture of the filling.
Cold boiled chicken
Adds mild savoury body and bulk to the filling alongside the tongue.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture so the chopped meats hold together and stay soft.
Egg yolk
Acts as a binder that helps the filling cling together and adds richness.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds acidity and savoury depth that balances the richness of the butter and yolk.

The step that matters

Mixing the filling with the beaten egg yolk and melted butter. Butter and yolk must be fully blended into the chopped meat so the filling is evenly moist and holds together on the bread. Unevenly mixed fat leaves dry or greasy patches and a loose spread.

“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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