Name: Cheese and Ham
Ingredients: 1 cup white sauce; ½ cup chopped ham; ½ cup grated cheese; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper; toast

Why it works: Ham and cheese work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 303 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Cheese and Ham

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine the white sauce, chopped ham, grated cheese, and cayenne pepper.
Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Serve the mixture on slices of toast.

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.

Ham + cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together303 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,861 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,987 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + hamtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,058 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).