Name: Tea Sandwich
Ingredients: brown bread; Philadelphia cream cheese; finely chopped peanuts; bright jelly

Why it works: Cream cheese and peanut work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 163 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Tea Sandwich

Ingredients

brown bread
Philadelphia cream cheese
finely chopped peanuts
bright jelly

Directions

Cut the brown bread into fancy shapes like stars or diamonds.
Spread a layer of Philadelphia cream cheese on each piece.
Sprinkle finely chopped peanuts over the cream cheese.
Top each sandwich with a cube of bright jelly.

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 + peanuttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together163 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Bread + peanuttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Bread + cream cheesetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together166 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).