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Gherkin and Sardine Sandwiches

A sandwich made with sardines, gherkins, butter, mayonnaise, mustard, and seasoning on white and brown bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Gherkin and Sardine Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the butter, egg yolks, sardines, mustard, mayonnaise, and seasoning.

  2. Pound the mixture until smooth, then pass it through a fine sieve.

Assemble and cut

  1. Spread the mixture on slices of white bread that have been buttered.

  2. Sprinkle with chopped gherkins and top with slices of buttered brown bread.

  3. Press the sandwiches together firmly and cut into fancy shapes.

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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + mustardtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sardines
Provide the main savoury, oily flavour of the filling.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a smooth, creamy body to the filling.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and moisture so the filling spreads easily and stays soft.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps bind the filling smooth.

The step that matters

Pound and sieve the filling until smooth. Pounding breaks down the sardines and yolks into a fine paste, and sieving removes any remaining fibres or lumps. A coarse filling tears the soft bread and makes the sandwiches crumble when cut.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, 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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