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Aberdeen Sandwiches

A sandwich of cold chicken and ham or tongue mixed with white sauce and curry powder, served on butter‑fried toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Aberdeen Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Chop the cold chicken and ham or tongue finely.

  2. Mix the chicken, ham, white sauce, and curry powder in a bowl.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fry squares of toast in butter until golden.

  2. Spread the chicken mixture over the toast.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

  4. Serve hot as an appetizer.

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. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Cold chicken
Forms the main filling, providing the bulk and savoury meat flavour of the topping.
White sauce
Binds the chopped meat together and keeps the filling moist as it heats.
Ham or tongue
Adds a second meat with a salty, savoury flavour to the filling.
Toast squares
Provide a crisp base that holds the filling and soaks up little moisture.

The step that matters

Baking the spread toast. Baking for the stated time at the stated heat warms the filling through and lightly browns the surface. Too little time leaves the filling cold in the middle, while too much dries the meat and can make the toast hard.

“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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