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 ↓
Ham Sandwich
Ingredients
Directions
Make the spread
In a bowl, mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs.
Add the prepared mustard and mix until smooth.
Beat the butter until creamy and combine with the egg mixture.
Assemble
Spread the mixture on thinly sliced bread.
Top each slice with finely chopped ham.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Mustard + hamtop 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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify with the butter to give the spread a rich, smooth, creamy body.
- Prepared mustard
- Adds sharp, tangy flavour that cuts through the richness of the butter and yolks.
- Butter
- Provides fat that makes the spread soft, creamy and spreadable.
- Ham
- Supplies savoury, salty meat flavour as the filling on top of the spread.
The step that matters
Beat the butter until creamy and combine with the egg mixture. Butter must be soft enough to beat smooth; cold or lumpy butter will not blend evenly with the yolks, leaving the spread grainy instead of uniformly creamy.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, bread, ham):
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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