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Chicken and Ham Sandwiches

Chicken and ham sandwiches made with minced chicken and ham, mixed with boiling gravy, spread on fried bread with cheese and butter, baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Chicken and Ham Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Combine minced chicken and ham in a bowl.

  2. Stir in boiling gravy.

  3. Let it sit by the fire for a few moments.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cut slices of old bread with a round cutter.

  2. Fry the bread slices.

  3. Spread a layer of the chicken and ham mixture between two slices of fried bread.

  4. Add a small piece of cheese.

  5. Add a bit of butter made into a paste.

  6. Place the sandwiches in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for five minutes.

  7. Serve hot on a folded napkin at tea-time.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold chicken
Provides the main meaty bulk and savoury flavour of the filling.
Cold ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour to the filling.
Boiling gravy
Moistens the minced meat so the filling spreads and does not dry out.
Old bread
Forms the structure that holds the filling, and frying crisps and browns its surface.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the bread brown and carrying flavour.
Cheese
Melts into the filling, adding richness and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the bread slices. Bread that is fried until golden is crisp and sealed, so it resists soaking up the moist filling and stays firm in the oven. Under-frying leaves it soft and soggy.

“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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