Name: Sandwich Dressing
Ingredients: 2 hard boiled egg yolks; 1 teaspoon made mustard; ½ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 1 tablespoon olive oil; meat (chopped fine); bread

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sandwich Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

Chop the yolks of the hard boiled eggs finely.
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, mustard, pepper, salt, vinegar, and olive oil.
Chop the meat finely and combine it with the dressing.

Assemble

Spread the mixture between slices of bread.

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.

Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,950 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,091 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,297 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Give the dressing a rich, creamy body and bind it together.
Made mustard: Adds sharp flavour that cuts through the richness of the yolks.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Olive oil: Adds fat that smooths the texture and carries flavour.
Meat: Provides the savoury body of the sandwich filling.

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits better
Tomatofits about as well
Mustardthe original
Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, vinegar, olive, meat, bread. 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.