Name: Ham Sandwiches
Ingredients: thinly sliced ham; mixed mustard or horseradish; buttered thinly sliced bread; mayonnaise (optional); ground beef or other meat (optional)

Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham Sandwiches

Ingredients

thinly sliced ham
mixed mustard or horseradish
buttered thinly sliced bread
mayonnaise (optional)
ground beef or other meat (optional)

Directions

Make the simple sandwich

Slice the ham very thin.
Spread a little mixed mustard or horseradish on the ham.
Place the ham between slices of buttered bread.

Make the ground ham filling

Grind the ham with one-third ground beef or other meat.
Mix the mixture with mayonnaise.
Spread the mixture between thin slices of buttered 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.

Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together747 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ham + beeftop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,729 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,484 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham: Provides the savory, meaty filling that gives the sandwich its main flavor.
Mixed mustard or horseradish: Adds sharp, pungent flavor that cuts through the richness of the ham.
Buttered bread: Butter adds fat and flavor and helps keep the bread from soaking up the filling.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and moisture and helps bind the ground meat and ham into a spreadable mixture.
Ground beef: Adds bulk and a softer, more spreadable texture to the ham filling.