Name: Chicken Sandwiches
Ingredients: 12 tablespoons chopped cooked chicken; 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley; 4 tablespoons chopped green pepper; 4 tablespoons mayonnaise dressing; Butter (for spreading); Bread slices

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients

12 tablespoons chopped cooked chicken
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
4 tablespoons chopped green pepper
4 tablespoons mayonnaise dressing
Butter (for spreading)
Bread slices

Directions

Prepare the filling

Steam the chicken until tender.
Once cold, chop the chicken breast finely.
In a bowl, combine the chicken, green pepper, parsley, and mayonnaise.

Assemble

Spread the mixture between buttered 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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Provides the main protein and bulk of the sandwich filling.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds moisture and richness and binds the filling together.
Green pepper: Adds crisp texture and fresh flavour to the filling.