Name: Ham and Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons ham, finely chopped; 1 tablespoon Gruyere cheese, finely grated; 1 teaspoon mustard; butter, for spreading; bread, thinly sliced

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 Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

3 tablespoons ham, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Gruyere cheese, finely grated
1 teaspoon mustard
butter, for spreading
bread, thinly sliced

Directions

Make the filling

Pound the ham until finely chopped.
Mix the ham with the Gruyere cheese, mustard, and a little butter to form a paste.

Assemble

Spread the mixture between two slices of buttered bread.

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).
Gruyere cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together323 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together747 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Gruyere cheese + mustardtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together49 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham: Provides the savory meaty base of the filling.
Gruyere cheese: Melts into the paste, adding richness and a nutty, savory flavor.
Mustard: Adds sharp acidity and aroma that cut through the fat of the cheese and butter.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and moisture, and helps bind the paste.

Swap the mustard

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

Potatofits about as well
Onionfits about as well
Mustardthe original
Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, gruyere cheese, 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.