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Cheese Sandwiches

A pastry sandwich filled with a cheese and mustard mixture, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter 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 ↓

Cheese 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 the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the cheese, beaten egg, egg yolk, mustard, salt, pepper, and cayenne to the melted butter and mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out the pastry thinly and lay it on a baking sheet.

  2. Spread the cheese mixture over half of the pastry and fold the other half over it.

  3. Pinch the edges to seal and lightly mark the top into finger lengths.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

  5. Cut into fingers and serve hot.

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

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

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 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

Pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky outer layers that puff and brown in the oven.
Parmesan or dry grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and sets firmly with the egg as it bakes.
Egg and egg yolk
Binds the cheese filling and helps it set into a firm, sliceable custard.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flavour of the seasonings through the filling.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that balances the richness of the cheese and butter.

The step that matters

Pinch the edges to seal. A tight seal keeps the cheese filling from leaking out during baking, so the pastry stays filled and cooks evenly.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, egg, pepper, butter. 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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