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Deviled Toast

Deviled Toast is a toasted bread topped with a mustard and paprika butter mixture and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Deviled Toast

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the bread into thin slices.

  2. Toast the slices slowly until golden brown.

Season and bake

  1. Mix butter with dry mustard, paprika, and onion juice.

  2. Spread the mixture on the toasted bread.

  3. Sprinkle with grated cheese.

  4. Place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 3 minutes.

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. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Wheat + mustardtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together134 recipes

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

  5. 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

Butter
Carries the mustard, paprika and onion flavours and keeps the topping moist and spreadable.
Dry mustard
Adds a sharp, pungent bite that sets the savoury character of the toast.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns in the hot oven, adding richness and a golden surface.
Whole wheat or brown bread
Serves as the crisp base that holds the topping.

The step that matters

Toast the slices slowly until golden brown. Slow toasting dries the bread evenly through without scorching the surface, so it stays crisp and sturdy enough to hold the spread without going soggy or burning before the topping is added.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, butter, mustard, cheese):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, butter, mustard, cheese. 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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