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Nasturtiun Sandwiches

A sandwich made with a mixture of egg yolks, salad oil, lemon juice, mustard, and finely rubbed hard‑boiled eggs, served with nasturtium or lettuce leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Nasturtiun Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, gently stir the yolks of two eggs.

  2. Add salt, then slowly drizzle in the salad oil while mixing.

  3. Thin the mixture with lemon juice and add red pepper and mustard.

  4. Incorporate the finely rubbed hard boiled eggs and potted meat or chicken.

Assemble the sandwiches

  1. Cut the bread into rounds using a powder box.

  2. Spread the mixture on each slice and place a nasturtium or lettuce leaf between.

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. Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify the salad oil into a thick, smooth base that holds the filling together.
Salad oil
Provides fat and richness, giving the filling a smooth, creamy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and thins the emulsion.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and a firm, crumbly texture to the filling.
Potted ham or potted tongue
Supplies savory meat flavor and substance to the filling.

The step that matters

Drizzle in the salad oil slowly while mixing. Egg yolks can only hold oil in suspension if it is added gradually while mixing. Adding it too fast breaks the emulsion, so the filling separates and turns greasy instead of thick and smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, mustard, ham, bread, lettuce):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, mustard, ham, bread, lettuce. 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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