Name: Cheese Cream Sandwiches
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons grated cheese; a little celery or a few shelled and peeled walnuts; 2 large tablespoons butter; double cream; cayenne pepper; slices of bread; parsley for garnish

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cheese Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Butter the slices of bread slightly.

Assemble

Finely chop the celery or walnuts and mix with the cheese and double cream.
Spread the mixture on the buttered side of the bread slices.
Place the slices together to form sandwiches.

Cut and serve

Cut the sandwiches into shapes like squares, oblongs, crescents, or stars.
Garnish with sprigs of parsley and serve.

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.

Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated cheese: Provides the main savoury flavour and body of the filling.
Double cream: Adds richness and moisture, letting the cheese spread smoothly into the filling.
Butter: Coats the bread so it resists soaking and adds richness to each slice.
Celery or walnuts: Adds crunch and texture to the soft cheese filling.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, cream, pepper, bread, parsley):

Thymefits about as well
Nutmegfits about as well
Celerythe original
Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, cream, pepper, bread, parsley. 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.