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Cheese Sandwiches

A sandwich made with a mixture of grated Parmesan, butter, and mustard spread between bread and ham or cured meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese spread

  1. In a mortar, combine grated Parmesan cheese, butter, and made mustard. Pound until well mixed.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread a little of the cheese mixture on a slice of bread.

  2. Layer slices of ham or cured meat on top.

  3. Cover with another slice of bread and press together.

  4. Cut into bite-sized pieces for easy lifting with a fork.

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

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

  3. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Mustard + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

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

  5. Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Parmesan cheese
Provides savory, salty flavor and binds with butter into a spreadable paste.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the cheese and gives the spread a smooth, rich texture.
Bread
Forms the outer structure that holds the layered filling together.
Ham or cured meat
Adds salty, savory meaty flavor and substance to the sandwich.

The step that matters

Pounding the cheese mixture until well mixed. If the Parmesan, butter and mustard are not fully combined, the spread will be lumpy and unevenly seasoned, with pockets of sharp mustard or greasy butter in some bites.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, butter, bread, ham. 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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