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Ham Canapes

A toasted bread round topped with a mixture of boiled ham, mustard, cream, cheese, and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Ham Canapes

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 the bread

  1. Cut thin rounds of bread using a large biscuit cutter.

  2. Sauté the bread in butter or brown it in the oven.

Assemble and bake

  1. Chop the boiled ham very finely.

  2. Mix the chopped ham with mustard and a little cream.

  3. Spread the ham mixture on the bread rounds.

  4. Top with grated cheese and a sprinkle of paprika.

  5. Place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes until the cheese melts.

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. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Butter + cheesetop 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
Provides a crisp, sturdy base that holds the topping without going soggy.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the bread brown when sautéed.
Boiled ham
Supplies the savoury, meaty flavour that is the main taste of the canapé.
Cream
Moistens the chopped ham so it spreads smoothly and stays tender.
Grated cheese
Melts over the topping, adding richness and a browned, savoury finish.

The step that matters

Browning the bread before topping. Bread that is not browned first absorbs moisture from the ham mixture and turns soggy. Sautéing in butter or toasting in the oven dries and crisps the surface, so it holds the topping during the final bake.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, ham, cream, cheese):

  1. Onionfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, ham, cream, cheese. 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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