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A Simple Lunch

A simple lunch featuring sardines, pickled oysters, cold ham, bread, and assorted accompaniments.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

A Simple Lunch

Ingredients

Directions

Serve the spread

  1. Serve sardines and pickled oysters.

  2. Slice cold ham and garnish with parsley.

  3. Prepare chowchow and cold slaw.

  4. Spread butter on thin slices of bread.

Drinks and finish

  1. Brew tea or chocolate and top with whipped cream.

  2. Serve cheese and fruit.

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. Ham + breadtop 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

Sardines
Provide the main savory, oily fish element of the lunch.
Pickled oysters
Add briny, acidic flavor that contrasts with the rich fish and bread.
Cold sliced ham
Supplies salty, savory meat flavor and substance to the spread.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the bread, softening its dry texture.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture to the hot drink.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Pepperfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, ham, bread, butter, tea, 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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