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Cheese Sandwiches

A sandwich made with cheese, hard‑boiled egg, mild mustard, vinegar, butter, salt, and Tabasco sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the cheese into small pieces.

  2. Add the egg, mild mustard, vinegar, melted butter, salt, and Tabasco sauce gradually, beating continuously until creamy.

  3. Spread the mixture on thin 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hard boiled egg
Adds richness and body, helping the spread hold together and turn creamy.
American cheese
Melts and blends into a smooth, spreadable base with a savory flavor.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a silkier texture and a richer mouthfeel.
Made mustard
Adds sharp flavor that cuts through the richness of the cheese and egg.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the fat.

The step that matters

Add the ingredients gradually while beating continuously. Adding liquids and fats slowly while beating lets them emulsify into one smooth, creamy mixture. Adding everything at once can leave the spread greasy or lumpy.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Mustardthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits less well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vinegar, cheese, butter, sauce, 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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