Name: Prepared Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 pound cold ham, chopped or ground fine; 6 hard boiled eggs, chopped; 1 cup vinegar; ½ cup French mustard; ½ cup butter, softened; Salt and pepper to taste; Thin slices of bread

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 ↓

Prepared Sandwiches

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

In a large bowl, mix the chopped ham, chopped eggs, vinegar, mustard, and butter until well combined.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Assemble and serve

Spread the mixture between thin slices of bread.
Cut into desired shapes 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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham: Provides the main meaty body and savoury flavour of the filling.
Hard boiled eggs: Add bulk and a soft, creamy texture to the filling.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the rich ham and egg mixture.
French mustard: Contributes sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the filling.
Butter: Adds fat and moisture, helping bind the filling and keep it soft.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg, vinegar, butter, pepper, bread):

Capsicumfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, vinegar, butter, pepper, bread. 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.