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Gourmet Egg Salad Sandwich

"This egg salad sandwich is loosely based on an open-faced egg salad sandwich served at a local bistro. The unexpected pairing of pesto and Jarlsberg compliments the egg salad tremendously. The amounts of each ingredient can vary depending on taste."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and bread match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 22,584 recipes mention both. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep5 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat, turning occasionally, until crisp, about 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels, then crumble.

  2. While the bacon cooks, place the chopped hard-cooked eggs in a bowl and mash lightly with a fork.

  3. Add the mayonnaise, yellow mustard, salt and black pepper to the eggs and stir until evenly combined. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

  4. Fold the crumbled bacon into the egg salad.

  5. Toast the sourdough slices in a toaster or a dry skillet over medium heat until golden, about 3 minutes.

  6. Spread the pesto evenly over one side of each toasted slice, dividing it among all four slices.

  7. Place a slice of Jarlsberg cheese on each of the two bottom slices. Cover the skillet over low heat for 1 to 2 minutes to soften the cheese.

  8. Spoon the egg salad over the cheese, dividing it evenly. Top with the remaining bread slices, pesto side down.

  9. Cut each sandwich diagonally in half and serve right away.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Egg + breadtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Bread + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Mustard + cheesetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,805 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15,427 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,861 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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, bread, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).