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Gherkin and Egg Sandwiches

A sandwich of boiled eggs mixed with gherkins, butter, cayenne pepper, and salt, served on buttered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Gherkin and Egg Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the eggs for 15 minutes, then remove the shells and let them cool.

  2. Pound the yolks in a bowl with the butter, salt, and cayenne pepper until smooth.

  3. Chop the egg whites and gherkins finely, then mix them into the yolk paste.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the paste between two slices of buttered bread.

  2. Cut the sandwiches into small oblongs or squares.

  3. Serve on a folded napkin, garnished with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks form a smooth, rich paste, while chopped whites add body and texture to the filling.
Fresh butter
Blends with the yolks to make the paste smooth and spreadable, and adds richness.
Gherkins
Chopped pickles add acidity and a crisp bite that cuts through the rich yolk paste.

The step that matters

Pounding the yolks smooth with the butter. Yolks must be thoroughly broken down and blended with the butter; lumps of yolk stay dry and crumbly and do not spread well. Cooled, firm yolks are easier to press smooth.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Sagefits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, 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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