Name: Ham for Sandwiches
Ingredients: 2 cups cold boiled ham, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons melted butter; 2 hard-boiled egg yolks; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; ¼ teaspoon dry mustard; ¼ teaspoon paprika

Why it works: Lemon and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,816 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Ham for Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the finely chopped ham and melted butter in a bowl.
Add the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs, lemon juice, dry mustard, and paprika.
Pound all the ingredients together until you achieve a smooth paste.

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.

Lemon + mustardtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,816 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together747 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled ham: Provides the main savory meat flavor and bulk of the spread.
Melted butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the mixture turn smooth and spreadable.
Hard-boiled egg yolks: Add richness and body, helping bind the paste into a smooth spread.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich ham and butter flavors.

The step that matters

Pound until smooth. Finely chopped ham and cooked yolks stay grainy unless worked thoroughly. Breaking the meat and fats into a fine, even paste gives the spread its smooth texture and lets the butter coat the particles evenly.

“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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Ham for Sandwiches