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A baked bread dish with toasted rye, peanuts, onions, celery, parsley, and a peanut butter–cheese filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,805 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, peanut (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the bread

  1. Cut the rye bread into slices.

  2. Toast the slices in a 350°F oven until golden brown.

  3. Soak the toasted bread in water until soft.

  4. Press out the water.

Make the peanut base

  1. Add the ground peanuts, chopped onions, chopped celery, parsley, salt, oil, and cayenne pepper. Mix thoroughly.

  2. Transfer the mixture to an earthenware dish.

  3. Press the mixture down well.

  4. Make an opening in the center large enough to hold the filling.

Fill and bake

  1. In a bowl, combine the peanut butter, Neufchatel cheese, and milk.

  2. Fill the opening with this mixture.

  3. Cover the filling with the removed portion of bread.

  4. Bake in a 350°F oven for one hour. Serve with ketchup.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Celery + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,805 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

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

  4. Celery + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,001 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,506 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Rye bread
Soaked and pressed, it forms the soft, moist body of the loaf.
Ground raw peanuts
Provide the bulk and nutty flavour that forms the main body of the dish.
Peanut butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a creamy, spreadable texture.
Neufchatel cheese
Adds creaminess and tang to the filling, helping it stay soft and smooth.
Eggs (in the method)
Not listed in the record; omitted.

The step that matters

Pressing out the soaked bread. Soaked bread holds a lot of water; if it is not pressed well, the mixture stays wet and loose and may not hold its shape when baked.

Flavor stand-ins for the peanut

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

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Walnutbetter flavor fit
  3. Peasbetter flavor fit
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rye, bread, onion, celery, parsley, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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