Name: Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients: 8 ounces Cheshire or Cheddar cheese; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon anchovy essence or paste; 4 slices white or brown bread; salt and pepper to taste; a pinch of cayenne

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

8 ounces Cheshire or Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon anchovy essence or paste
4 slices white or brown bread
salt and pepper to taste
a pinch of cayenne

Directions

Prepare

Grate the cheese finely.
In a bowl, mix the cheese with butter, anchovy essence, salt, pepper, and cayenne until smooth.

Assemble and cut

Spread the cheese mixture on half of the buttered bread slices.
Top with the remaining bread slices. Press gently.
Trim the edges.
Cut into desired shapes.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheddar cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,436 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 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

Cheese: Provides the main savoury flavour and, once blended with butter, a spreadable, creamy filling.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, helping the cheese mixture spread smoothly.
Anchovy essence: Adds a salty, savoury depth that enhances the flavour of the cheese.
Bread: Holds the filling in place and gives the sandwich its 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.