Name: Cannibal Sandwiches of Rye Bread
Ingredients: ½ pound raw beef; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt; dash of red pepper; 1 tablespoon onion juice; buttered rye or brown bread

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cannibal Sandwiches of Rye Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

Grind the raw beef using a meat chopper.
Mix in the salt, red pepper, and onion juice.

Assemble the sandwich

Spread the mixture over buttered rye or brown bread.
Top with another slice of bread and trim off the crust.

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + ryetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together80 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Onion + ryetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together73 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw beef: Forms the main body of the sandwich and supplies its rich, meaty flavor.
Onion juice: Adds sharp onion aroma and flavor to the ground meat.
Rye or brown bread: Provides the base and structure that holds the beef spread.