Name: Ribbon Sandwiches
Ingredients: 3 slices white bread; 2 slices whole wheat bread; Butter; Egg paste

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 ↓

Ribbon Sandwiches

Ingredients

3 slices white bread
2 slices whole wheat bread
Butter
Egg paste

Directions

Butter one slice of white bread and spread egg paste on it.
Place a slice of whole wheat bread on top and butter it, then add more egg paste.
Add another slice of white bread and repeat the process, alternating between white and whole wheat until all slices are used.
Cut the stacked sandwiches into narrow strips.

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).
Bread + wheattop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,002 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

White bread: Forms the light outer layers of the stacked sandwich and gives the contrasting pale colour of the ribbons.
Whole wheat bread: Forms the darker alternating layers, creating the striped ribbon pattern and a heartier flavour.
Butter: Coats the bread so the egg paste is less likely to soak into it, and adds richness.
Egg paste: Acts as the moist filling between the bread layers, binding them and adding flavour.

“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.