Name: German Sandwiches
Ingredients: Rye bread; Butter; Limburger cheese; Bologna sausage

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

German Sandwiches

Ingredients

Rye bread
Butter
Limburger cheese
Bologna sausage

Directions

Cut thin slices of rye bread.
Butter the slices before removing them from the loaf.
Spread a thin layer of limburger cheese on each slice.
Cut bologna sausage into the thinnest possible slices.
Cover the cheese with the sliced sausage.
Top with another slice of bread and press the two together.
Do not remove the crusts.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Rye + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together59 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Rye + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together348 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Butter + limburger cheesetop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together0 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Bread + limburger cheesetop 39% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together0 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).