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Madison Canapes

A toasted bread appetizer topped with ham, mustard, butter, wine, Parmesan, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Madison Canapes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Spread mustard on the toast.

  2. Layer with thin slices of ham.

  3. Mix butter with a dash of white wine and spread over the ham.

  4. Dredge grated Parmesan on top.

  5. Sprinkle fresh bread crumbs and a little more butter over all.

Bake and serve

  1. Place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

  2. Serve on a folded napkin.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Toast slices
Provides a crisp base that holds the topping.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty meat flavour under the topping.
Butter
Carries fat that helps the topping brown and stay moist.
Grated parmesan
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury, nutty flavour.
Fresh bread crumbs
Adds a light, crisp texture to the surface.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, white wine, 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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