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Cheese Paste for Sandwiches

A spread made from hard‑boiled eggs, butter, grated American cheese, salt, and optional dry mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Paste for Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Hard boil the eggs, then separate the yolks from the whites.

  2. Mash the yolks until smooth and chop the whites very fine.

  3. Mix the yolks and whites, then press through a vegetable press.

Finish the paste

  1. Add the butter and grated cheese, and beat until smooth.

  2. Season with salt and dry mustard if desired.

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 + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + mustardtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks give the paste its rich, creamy body, while the finely chopped whites add texture.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the paste smooth, spreadable, and rich in mouthfeel.
American cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps bind the paste into a smooth, spreadable mixture.

The step that matters

Beat the butter and cheese until smooth. Fat and cheese must be fully blended into the egg mixture so the paste emulsifies evenly. Unblended pieces of butter or cheese leave lumps and a greasy, uneven texture.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, cheese):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cheese. 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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