Name: Boiled Eggs
Ingredients: 2 boiled eggs; 1 cup finely shredded celery; ½ cup mayonnaise; 4 slices brown bread

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Eggs

Ingredients

2 boiled eggs
1 cup finely shredded celery
½ cup mayonnaise
4 slices brown bread

Directions

Make the filling

Finely chop the boiled eggs.
Mix the chopped eggs with the shredded celery and mayonnaise.

Assemble

Spread the mixture between the slices of brown bread.
Cut the sandwiches into oblongs.

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.

Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Celery + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,110 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + celerytop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,334 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled eggs: Provide the main body and texture of the sandwich filling.
Mayonnaise: Binds the chopped eggs and celery and adds moisture and richness.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, slightly savoury crunch against the soft filling.