Name: Ham Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 lb minced boiled ham; 1 oz butter; 1 egg; cayenne pepper to taste; mustard to taste; 2 or 3 floury potatoes; slices of buttered bread

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 Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

Mash the baked or boiled potatoes with the butter until fine.
Beat the egg and mix it into the mashed potatoes.
Combine the potato mixture with the minced ham, adding a little mustard and cayenne pepper.

Assemble

Spread the mixture between thin 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).
Mustard + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,340 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 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

Minced boiled ham: Provides the main savoury filling and meaty flavour of the sandwich.
Floury potatoes: Mash into a soft, spreadable base that binds the filling and keeps it moist.
Egg: Binds the mashed potato so the filling holds together when spread.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the mashed potato a smoother texture and flavour.

Swap the potato

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

Shallotfits better
Asparagusfits better
Chivefits about as well
Potatothe original

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