Why it works: Sauce and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Italian Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Combine clout sauce and curry paste in a stewpan; boil while stirring until thick.
Add diced tongue, anchovies, and lemon juice; mix well.
Assemble the croutons
Cut thin slices from the sandwich loaf and stamp out 24 croutons.
Fry croutons in clarified butter until bright yellow; drain on a napkin.
Place half of the croutons on a baking sheet lined with paper.
Spread a thick layer of the curry mixture on each crouton and top with remaining croutons.
Mix grated Parmesan with butter to form a paste; divide into 12 balls.
Place a ball on top of each sandwich.
Bake and serve
Warm in the oven for 10 minutes, then use a salamander to color them bright yellow.
Serve on a napkin.
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.
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,314 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Ham + lemontop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,788 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red tongue or lean ham
- Provides the savory meat base that gives the filling its body and flavor.
- Anchovies
- Adds a salty, savory depth that rounds out the curry filling.
- Clout sauce
- Forms the thickened base of the filling once boiled until thick.
- Curry paste
- Contributes spice and aroma to the thickened sauce.
- Fresh parmesan
- Forms a savory, salty paste that browns and adds richness on top.
- Sandwich loaf
- Provides the bread structure for the croutons that hold the filling.
The step that matters
Boil the clout sauce and curry paste until thick. The mixture must reduce enough to hold its shape when spread; if it stays thin it will run off the croutons and soak them.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sauce, butter):
- Applefits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sauce, butter. 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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