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Cheese Sandwiches

A cheese sandwich made with grated New York cheese, egg, milk, and seasonings, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Sandwiches

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cheese filling

  1. Scald the milk and remove it from the heat.

  2. Add the egg yolk, cheese, egg white, and seasonings to the milk.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil, then remove it from the heat.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool, then spread it between slices of buttered bread.

Cut and toast

  1. Cut the sandwiches thin.

  2. Toast them in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) in a pan, turning them over.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

New york cheese
Melts into the filling and gives the sandwich its main flavor and richness.
Egg
Thickens the cheese mixture as it heats and helps it set when cooled.
Sweet milk
Melts the cheese smoothly and keeps the filling moist and creamy.

The step that matters

Bring the mixture to a boil, then remove it from the heat. Egg proteins thicken with heat, but overheating can curdle the egg and make the filling grainy. Stop once it boils and let it cool to thicken gently.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, egg, milk, 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.

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