Name: Colonial Club Sandwiches
Ingredients: 8 ounces cream cheese (neufchatel); ¼ cup heavy cream; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ cup finely chopped red peppers

Why it works: Cream cheese and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,087 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

Colonial Club Sandwiches

Ingredients

8 ounces cream cheese (neufchatel)
¼ cup heavy cream
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ cup finely chopped red peppers

Directions

Make the spread

Mash the cream cheese in a bowl.
Moisten the cheese with heavy cream.
Season with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.
Add the finely chopped red peppers and mix well.

Assemble and shape

Spread the mixture on very thin slices of bread.
Cut the bread into fancy shapes.

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.

Cream cheese + creamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,087 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream cheese + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,195 recipes

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