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Hot Cheese Sandwiches

A baked sandwich made with bread, American cheese, salt, paprika, and butter or egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Hot Cheese Sandwiches

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut each slice of bread into a 2-inch square.

  2. Remove a smaller square from the center, leaving a ½-inch thick border.

  3. Fill the hollow with a piece of American cheese.

  4. Sprinkle with salt and paprika.

  5. Cover with the top piece of bread to form a box.

  6. Brush the top with melted butter or beaten egg white.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

  2. Serve very hot on hot plates.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the box-shaped case that holds the filling and gives the sandwich its structure.
American cheese
Melts inside the bread to create a soft, rich, gooey filling.
Butter or egg white
Promotes browning and gives the top crust a glossy, golden finish.

The step that matters

Bake until browned. High oven heat browns the bread through the Maillard reaction while the cheese melts inside. The thin ½-inch walls can scorch before the filling softens, so watch the sandwiches closely.

“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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