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American Sandwiches

A sandwich made with chopped ham, pickles, mustard, butter, and bread, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

American Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the chopped ham, pickles, mustard, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Beat the butter until creamy, then mix in the ham mixture until well combined.

  3. Cut the bread into thin slices and spread the ham mixture on each slice.

  4. Press the slices together, cut into diamond shapes, and garnish with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

Ham
Provides the savory, meaty filling that gives the sandwich its main flavor.
Pickles
Add acidity and a tangy bite that cuts through the rich butter.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture, binding the filling and helping it spread smoothly on the bread.
Bread
Provides the structure that holds the filling and lets the sandwich be pressed and cut.

The step that matters

Beating the butter until creamy. Softened butter beaten until creamy blends evenly with the ham mixture, so the filling spreads smoothly and stays consistent instead of clumping or tearing the thin bread.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, butter, bread, parsley. 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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