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Good Sandwich Filling

A creamy spread made from cream cheese, pimentos, milk, flour, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cream cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,393 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Good Sandwich Filling

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a double boiler, cook the milk, flour, salt, and cayenne pepper with the cream cheese until very thick.

  2. Stir in the pimentos cut into pieces.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then spread it between slices of bread.

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. Milk + cream cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Flour + cream cheesetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese
Provides the rich, creamy body and fat that give the spread its smooth texture.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that blends with the cream cheese into a smooth sauce.
Flour
Thickens the mixture as its starch swells with heat, helping the spread hold together.
Pimentos
Add mild sweetness, bright color, and a gentle pepper flavor to the spread.

The step that matters

Cook gently in a double boiler until very thick. Indirect, moderate heat keeps the milk and cream cheese from scorching or separating, while the flour's starch swells and thickens the mixture 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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