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Russian Sandwiches

A sandwich made with Neufchatel cheese, pecans, olives, mayonnaise, salt, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pecans and olive work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 716 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Russian Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Rub the Neufchatel cheese to a paste.

  2. Add chopped pecans and finely chopped olive meat.

  3. Season with salt and cayenne to taste.

  4. Moisten the mixture with mayonnaise dressing until spreadable.

Assemble

  1. Spread the mixture between Saltines or any crisp cracker.

  2. Press the sandwiches firmly 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.

  1. Pecans + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together716 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Cheese + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,802 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  3. Pecans + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Meat + olivetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together564 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Neufchatel cheese
Forms the creamy base that holds the filling together.
Pecans
Add crunch and a rich, nutty texture against the soft cheese.
Olives
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour that balances the cheese.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds fat and moisture so the mixture becomes spreadable.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, meat, olive):

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, meat, olive. 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.

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