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Sandwich Filling

A creamy cheese and celery sandwich filling with mayonnaise, Tabasco, green pepper, and pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Sandwich Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Chop the celery and green pepper finely.

  2. Press out the juice well.

Mix and spread

  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

  2. Spread the mixture between crackers or sandwich 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.

  1. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + nutstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cheese + nutstop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together101 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Forms the creamy body of the filling and carries most of its rich flavour.
Mayonnaise
Adds moisture and fat so the mixture binds together and spreads smoothly.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh, slightly savoury flavour to the filling.
Green sweet pepper
Adds crunch and a mild, fresh bitterness that balances the rich cheese.
Pecan nuts
Add crunchy texture and a toasty, buttery note against the soft cheese.

The step that matters

Press out the juice well. Celery and sweet pepper release water when chopped. If it is not pressed out, the liquid soaks into the bread or crackers and makes the sandwich soggy.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, sauce, celery, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, sauce, celery, pepper. 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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