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Olive Sandwiches

A sandwich made with olives, nuts, mayonnaise, and buttered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Olive Sandwiches

Why it works: Olive and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,091 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Olive Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Pound the nuts until soft and fine.

  2. Remove the meat from the olives and chop it very fine.

  3. Mix the chopped olives and nuts together.

  4. Add enough mayonnaise to create a smooth paste.

Assemble

  1. Spread the mixture on buttered bread cut into triangles.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Olive + nutstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together186 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Nuts + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Olives
Provide the main flavour and a salty, briny character to the filling.
Nuts
Add body and texture when pounded into the filling.
Mayonnaise dressing
Binds the chopped olives and nuts into a smooth, spreadable paste.
Buttered bread
Adds a soft, rich base that holds the filling and carries its moisture.

The step that matters

Add enough mayonnaise to create a smooth paste. Too little mayonnaise leaves the chopped olives and nuts dry and crumbly, while too much makes the filling runny and soaks the bread. Adding it gradually lets you reach a spreadable consistency.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, bread):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Peasfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, bread. 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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