Name: Peanut Sandwiches
Ingredients: finely chopped peanuts; thick salad dressing; buttered bread; leaf of lettuce

Why it works: Peanut and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 170 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Peanut Sandwiches

Ingredients

finely chopped peanuts
thick salad dressing
buttered bread
leaf of lettuce

Directions

In a bowl, combine finely chopped peanuts with thick salad dressing.
Spread the mixture on slices of buttered bread.
Top with a leaf of lettuce and serve.

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.

Peanut + lettucetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together170 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Peanut + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).