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Ham-and-Tongue Sandwiches

A sandwich made with finely chopped cold tongue and ham, seasoned with paprika and mixed mustard, served on buttered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ham-and-Tongue Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the cold tongue and cold ham very fine.

  2. Pound the meat mixture in a mortar and season with paprika and mixed mustard.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread butter on one slice of bread.

  2. Spread the meat mixture on another slice of bread.

  3. Press the two slices together.

  4. 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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  3. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold tongue
Provides the main meaty body and texture of the filling.
Cold ham
Adds savoury flavour and fat that keeps the filling moist.
Butter
Coats the bread to add richness and keep the filling from soaking in.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharp, acidic bite that cuts through the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Pound the meat mixture in a mortar. Pounding breaks the finely chopped meat into a smooth, cohesive paste that spreads evenly. Under-pounding leaves lumps and uneven seasoning, so the filling holds together poorly on the bread.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Onionfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, 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.

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