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A Good Sandwich Filling

A sandwich filling made from ham, nuts, eggs, mustard, salt, pepper, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Good Sandwich Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Grind the cooked ham, nut meats, and hard-boiled eggs together.

  2. Sprinkle the mixture with mustard, salt, and pepper.

  3. Moisten with enough mayonnaise dressing to spread well.

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

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

  2. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked ham
Provides savory, meaty flavor and the bulk of the filling.
Nut meats
Add crunch and a nutty richness that contrasts with the soft egg.
Hard-boiled eggs
Give the filling body and a creamy texture once ground and bound together.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds moisture and fat so the mixture spreads smoothly and stays cohesive.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Spinachfits less well

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