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Bread

Ham Sandwiches

A sandwich made with chopped boiled ham, hard‑boiled eggs, onion juice, cayenne pepper, and vinegar, layered on bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the boiled ham and hard-boiled eggs finely.

  2. Season with a little onion juice and a dash of cayenne pepper.

  3. Add vinegar until the mixture is spreadable.

  4. Spread the mixture between layers of bread.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled ham
Provides the savory meaty base that gives the filling its bulk and flavor.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add creamy body and richness to the filling once chopped finely.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and loosens the chopped mixture so it spreads easily.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg, pepper, vinegar, spread, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, pepper, vinegar, spread, bread. 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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