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Grated Ham Sandwiches

A sandwich made with grated ham, cayenne pepper, puff pastry, and butter, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Grated Ham Sandwiches

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Finely grate the well-cooked ham to your desired amount.

  2. Flavor the ham with a pinch of cayenne pepper.

  3. Roll out the puff pastry very thin and cut it into two equal portions.

  4. Prick the pastry in one or two places to prevent rising.

Bake

  1. Bake in a quick oven at 400 °F (200 °C) until golden brown.

  2. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Assemble

  1. Spread a thin layer of fresh butter over the cooled pastry.

  2. Evenly spread the grated ham over the buttered pastry.

  3. Place the second piece of pastry on top and cut into small sandwiches.

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

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

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Well-cooked ham
Forms the savory filling that gives the sandwiches their main flavor.
Puff pastry
Provides thin, flaky layers that rise and crisp as they bake.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and helps the pastry brown and taste buttery.
Cayenne pepper
Adds a mild, warming heat that seasons the ham.

The step that matters

Let the pastry cool completely before buttering. Warm pastry melts the butter instead of leaving it as a layer, so the fat soaks in and softens the flaky layers.

“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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