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Good Sandwich Filing

A creamy spread made with cream cheese, sweet milk, cayenne pepper, flour, salt, and pimentos.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cream cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,393 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Good Sandwich Filing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese base

  1. In a double boiler, cook the milk, flour, salt, and cayenne pepper until very thick.

  2. Stir in the cream cheese until smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the pimentos, cut into pieces, and mix well.

  2. Let the mixture cool, then spread it between slices 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. Milk + cream cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Flour + cream cheesetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the sweet milk into a thick, stable base that holds the spread together.
Cream cheese
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture that makes the spread spreadable.
Pimentos
Add sweet, mild pepper flavor and colour to the spread.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens into a creamy sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the milk and flour until very thick. Flour thickens liquid only after it is heated and stirred long enough to gelatinise its starch. Undercooked, the base stays thin and the spread will be loose and runny once cooled.

“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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