Name: Lenten Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 pickled beet, chopped fine; 3 small pickles, chopped fine; 1 tablespoon fine-chopped capers; 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; ½ pint mayonnaise; 12 slices of bread; young lettuce leaves, for garnish

Why it works: Capers and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lenten Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

Chop the pickled beet, pickles, capers, and hard-boiled eggs finely.
Mix all the chopped ingredients with the mayonnaise.
Spread a thin layer of the mixture on each slice of bread.

Assemble and serve

Dip young lettuce leaves in mayonnaise and place them on 6 slices of bread.
Cover with the remaining 6 slices of bread.
Cut the sandwiches evenly around the edges, then cut into small triangles 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.

Capers + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together372 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together307 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Capers + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,311 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Mayonnaise: Binds the chopped filling and keeps it moist and creamy.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add body and richness to the filling, making it hold together on the bread.
Pickled beet: Adds sweet-sour flavor and a vivid color to the filling.
Pickles: Contribute acidity that cuts through the richness of the mayonnaise and eggs.
Capers: Add a sharp, briny note that brightens the filling.