Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Caviabe Sandwiches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut thin slices of white or brown bread.
Butter the slices.
Assemble
Spread a thin layer of caviar over the buttered sides.
Sprinkle with a little lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
Cover each with a second slice of buttered bread and press them lightly together.
Cut the sandwiches into neat pieces.
Serve
Serve nicely arranged on a dish covered with a napkin or dish paper.
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.
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + caviartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together107 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Bread + caviartop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together65 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and keeps the bread from soaking up the caviar's moisture.
- Caviar
- Provides the salty, briny flavour and the main texture of the filling.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the salty flavour of the caviar.
“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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