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Cheese Sandwich

A puff pastry sandwich filled with a cheese and egg yolk sauce, seasoned with cayenne pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Sandwich

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter and mix in the cheese.

  2. Season with cayenne pepper and salt.

  3. Beat the eggs and mix them into the cheese sauce.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out the puff pastry thinly.

  2. Spread the cheese mixture between two pieces of pastry.

  3. Cut out shapes with a fancy cutter.

  4. Brush the tops with beaten egg to brown.

  5. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on a savory paper.

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 + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Enrich the cheese filling, adding richness and helping it set smoothly when baked.
Egg white
Helps bind the filling and, brushed on top, promotes golden browning.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the cheese filling.
Grated cheese
Provides the main flavour and body of the savory filling.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky, layered outer case that puffs and crisps in the oven.

The step that matters

Brush the tops with beaten egg to brown. Beaten egg proteins brown in the oven, so an even, light coat gives colour; too thick a coat can pool and cook unevenly, and the pastry layers can be sealed shut so they do not puff.

“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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