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Olive Sandwiches

A sandwich filling made from olives, celery, mustard, ketchup, cracker crumbs, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Olive Sandwiches

Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Olive Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop and pound the olives and celery to a pulp.

  2. Mix in the mustard, ketchup, cracker crumbs, and mayonnaise until well combined.

  3. Spread the mixture on bread to make sandwiches.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Olive + celerytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,667 recipes

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

  4. Celery + ketchuptop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mustard + ketchuptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Olives
Provide the main savory flavor and salty, briny character of the filling.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and moisture, binding the chopped filling into a spreadable paste.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and help thicken the filling so it holds together on bread.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mildly vegetal bite to the chopped filling.

The step that matters

Chop and pound the olives and celery to a pulp. Pounding to a fine, even pulp spreads the flavor through the filling and keeps pieces from tearing the soft bread. Chunks left too large make the spread uneven and hard to hold together.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, celery, ketchup. 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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