Name: Sweet Peanut Sandwiches
Ingredients: ½ cup grated maple sugar or brown sugar; ¼ cup chopped peanuts; 1 tablespoon rich milk; buttered graham bread or crackers

Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Sweet Peanut Sandwiches

Ingredients

½ cup grated maple sugar or brown sugar
¼ cup chopped peanuts
1 tablespoon rich milk
buttered graham bread or crackers

Directions

In a bowl, mix the grated maple sugar or brown sugar, chopped peanuts, and rich milk until well combined.
Spread the mixture on buttered graham bread or crackers.

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.

Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Peanut + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,048 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Peanut + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + peanuttop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,545 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Maple sugar or brown sugar: Provides sweetness and a caramel-like flavor that defines the filling.
Chopped peanuts: Adds crunch and a roasted, nutty flavor to the filling.
Rich milk: Moistens the sugar and peanuts so they bind into a spreadable mixture.