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 ↓
Ham Sandwiches
Ingredients
Directions
Slice the cold boiled ham very thin.
Spread a little French mustard on the ham.
Place a slice of ham between two thin slices of buttered bread.
Alternatively, lay the ham on a very thin slice of buttered bread and roll it up carefully to avoid breaking the crust.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together747 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,484 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 boiled ham
- Supplies the savoury, salty filling that makes up the body of the sandwich.
- French mustard
- Adds sharp, tangy flavour that cuts through the richness of the ham and butter.
- Bread
- Provides the structure that holds the filling and the soft texture of the sandwich.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour to the bread and helps keep the bread from soaking up moisture from the filling.
The step that matters
Rolling the buttered bread. Very thin bread is delicate and tears easily, and the crust is more brittle than the soft crumb, so it cracks when bent. Handling it gently keeps the roll intact and the filling enclosed.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, bread, butter):
- Onionfits about as well
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, butter. 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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