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Orange Butter Sandwiches

A sandwich made with a smooth orange butter paste spread on thin bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Orange Butter Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a mortar, combine the hard boiled eggs, butter, thick cream, chopped almonds, sugar, and grated orange rind.

  2. Pound the mixture until smooth, then moisten with orange juice to form a soft paste.

  3. Chill the mixture in a cool place until ready to use.

Assemble

  1. Spread the mixture on thin slices of buttered bread and assemble into sandwiches.

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. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard boiled eggs
Provide body and richness, giving the filling a soft, spreadable structure.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the paste spread smoothly and feel creamy.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft and smooth.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the orange and the savoury egg.
Grated orange rind
Contributes aromatic citrus oils that give the filling its orange flavour.

The step that matters

Pound the mixture until smooth, then moisten with orange juice. Pounding breaks the egg and butter into a uniform paste, while adding orange juice gradually keeps it spreadable. Too much juice at once can make the filling loose and watery, so add it slowly until it just holds together.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, cream, almond, sugar, bread):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, almond, sugar, 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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