Name: Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients: 2 parts grated Parmesan cheese; 1 part butter; small amount of made mustard; slices of bread; slices of ham or any cured meat

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese spread

In a mortar, combine grated Parmesan cheese, butter, and made mustard. Pound until well mixed.

Assemble and serve

Spread a little of the cheese mixture on a slice of bread.
Top with slices of ham or cured meat.
Cover with another slice of bread and press together.
Cut into bite-sized pieces for easy lifting with a fork.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Mustard + hamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together747 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together577 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Parmesan cheese: Provides savory, salty flavor and binds the spread when mixed with butter.
Butter: Adds fat and moisture, helping the cheese spread smoothly over the bread.
Made mustard: Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of the cheese and butter.
Bread: Provides the structure that holds the filling together.
Ham or cured meat: Supplies the salty, savory meat layer that forms the filling.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parmesan cheese, butter, bread, ham):

Tomatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionfits about as well
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, butter, bread, ham. 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.