Name: Sugar and Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients: 4 slices whole wheat bread; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons light brown sugar; 2 tablespoons grated cheese; 4 slices white bread

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 ↓

Sugar and Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Spread butter on one side of each slice of whole wheat bread.
On the unbuttered side, spread equal amounts of light brown sugar and grated cheese.
Top each with a slice of buttered white bread, butter side down.
Cut into desired shapes and serve.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Wheat + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,002 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole wheat bread: Forms the base of the sandwich and holds the sugar and cheese filling.
Butter: Adds fat and richness and helps the bread brown when pressed in a pan.
Light brown sugar: Adds sweetness and molasses flavour that contrasts with the savoury cheese.
Grated cheese: Adds savoury flavour and a melty, binding filling.
White bread: Forms the top layer, sealing the filling between two slices.

“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.