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Sandwiches, a LA Regence

Sandwiches made with bread, butter, cooked meat or fish, black truffles, aspic jelly, and a vegetable border.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Sandwiches, a LA Regence

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sandwiches

  1. Cut the bread into thin slices and spread butter on each slice.

  2. Layer cooked meat or fish on half of the slices.

  3. Decorate with black truffles and cover with aspic jelly.

Make the vegetable border

  1. Prepare a border of vegetables by cutting carrots and turnips, boiling them in broth.

  2. Add Trench beans or asparagus heads and green peas, dipping each in aspic jelly before placing in a mold.

  3. Fill the mold with smaller vegetable pieces tossed in aspic jelly, seasoned with mignonette pepper, coarse sea salt, salad oil, and tarragon vinegar.

  4. Embed the mold in pounded ice until set firm.

Assemble and serve

  1. Turn out the border onto a dish and place the prepared sandwiches on top.

  2. Garnish with croutons of jelly and serve.

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. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Beans + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the base of the sandwiches, giving a sturdy, neat structure to hold the fillings.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and a barrier that keeps the bread from soaking up the aspic.
Aspic jelly
Sets into a clear gel that binds the vegetables and holds the sandwiches together.
Carrots
Provide colour, sweetness and a firm texture for the vegetable border.
Turnips
Add mild flavour and a firm bite to the vegetable border.
Green peas
Add colour and a tender, sweet bite to the vegetable border.

The step that matters

Embed the mold in pounded ice until set firm. The aspic must chill fully to set into a firm gel. If it is not cold enough or not left long enough, the border will be soft and will not hold its shape when turned out.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, meat, truffle, carrot, beans, peas):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, meat, truffle, carrot, beans, peas. 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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