Name: Dutch Lunch Sandwich
Ingredients: 2 large salted crackers; 2 very thin slices of Bermuda onions; minced sardines; lemon juice; butter

Why it works: Onion and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 42,912 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Dutch Lunch Sandwich

Ingredients

Directions

Spread butter on one cracker.
Layer with onion slices and minced sardines.
Squeeze lemon juice over the sardines.
Top with the second buttered cracker.
Alternatively, use chopped onions and a lettuce leaf between the crackers.

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.

Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,646 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Salted crackers: Provide the crisp, salty base and top that hold the filling.
Sardines: Supply the rich, savoury fish flavour that forms the filling.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and helps the crackers taste savoury and smooth.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the fish and cuts its richness.