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The Girard Nut Sandwich

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

The Girard Nut Sandwich

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Spread butter on each slice of bread.

  2. Place a thin slice of Gruyere cheese on each slice.

  3. Cover the cheese with peeled walnuts.

  4. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the walnuts.

  5. Add another thin slice of cheese on top of the nuts.

  6. Top with another slice of buttered bread.

  7. Press the slices together to hold the nuts in place.

  8. Serve with fine sherry.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + gruyere cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Bread + gruyere cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Bread + walnuttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together714 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Peasfits about as well
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Almondfits about as well
  4. Lima beansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, gruyere cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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