Name: Egg Salad Sandwiches
Ingredients: 2 triangular pieces of bread; salad dressing; 1 hard boiled egg, sliced; 4 leaves of lettuce

Why it works: Bread and egg 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 ↓

Egg Salad Sandwiches

Ingredients

2 triangular pieces of bread
salad dressing
1 hard boiled egg, sliced
4 leaves of lettuce

Directions

Spread salad dressing on one piece of bread.
Place sliced hard boiled egg on top.
Add lettuce leaves and more salad dressing.
Top with the second piece of bread and press together.

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.

Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Egg + lettucetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,301 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

Hard boiled egg: Provides the main filling, adding soft protein texture and body to the sandwich.
Salad dressing: Adds moisture and richness, binding the filling and softening the bread.
Lettuce: Adds crisp, fresh texture and moisture that contrasts with the soft egg.