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Indian Sandwiches

A sandwich made with toasted bread and a mixture of minced chicken, ham or tongue, thick white sauce, curry powder, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Indian Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the toast

  1. Cut the bread into round slices using a sharp cutter.

  2. Fry the bread slices until golden brown, like croutons.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the minced chicken with an equal amount of ham or tongue.

  2. Stir in the thick white sauce, curry powder, and lemon juice until well combined.

  3. Warm the mixture in a stewpan until heated through.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place a spoonful of the mixture between every two slices of toast.

  2. Arrange the sandwiches on a folded napkin or cut paper.

  3. Serve hot.

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

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

  2. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Bread + chickentop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  4. Chicken + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,445 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

Bread
Fried until golden, it forms the crisp, sturdy base that holds the filling.
Minced chicken
Provides the main savoury bulk and a tender, moist texture in the filling.
Ham or tongue
Adds meaty flavour and a firmer texture alongside the chicken.
Thick white sauce
Binds the minced meats together so the filling holds moisture and does not run.
Curry powder
Contributes warm, aromatic spice that flavours the whole filling.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, creamy filling and balances the spices.

The step that matters

Warm the filling until heated through. Minced meat mixed with a cream-based sauce can carry bacteria if undercooked, so it must be heated thoroughly. Gentle stirring in a stewpan also prevents the sauce from scorching on the base.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, chicken, ham, sauce):

  1. Pumpkinfits about as well
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, chicken, ham, sauce. 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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