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Egg Sandwiches

A sandwich made with mashed hard-boiled eggs, butter, cheese, and tomato purée, served on buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Egg Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Pound the hard-boiled eggs, butter, grated cheese, and tomato purée until smooth.

  2. Melt a lump of butter in a saucepan.

  3. Add the egg mixture and stir until hot.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the mixture between slices of hot buttered toast.

  2. Garnish each sandwich with the egg whites.

  3. Serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Cheese + tomatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Provide the main body and creamy texture of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the filling spread smoothly.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and some richness as it melts into the filling.
Tomato purée
Adds concentrated savory flavor, mild acidity, and a warm color.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture until just hot. Egg proteins set and toughen when overheated, so the filling turns grainy or rubbery. Gentle, constant stirring over moderate heat keeps it smooth and creamy.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, 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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