Skip to main content
Main

Celery Sandwiches with Mayonnaise

A cold sandwich made with boiled eggs, shredded celery, mayonnaise, and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,033 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Celery Sandwiches with Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the eggs for 15 minutes, then remove the shells.

  2. Chop the egg whites finely or press them through a vegetable press, mixing in a little shredded celery.

Assemble the sandwiches

  1. Cut the crust from one end of the loaf of bread and slice it into ¼‑inch thick slices.

  2. Butter the bread slices and layer them with the egg white and celery mixture.

  3. Add a layer of mayonnaise, then a layer of the sieved egg yolk.

  4. Top with another slice of bread and gently press the sandwich together.

  5. Cut the sandwiches into perfect squares with a sharp knife.

Serve

  1. Cover a plate with lettuce leaves, place the sandwiches on top, and cover with dampened lettuce leaves.

  2. Let the sandwiches sit for 20 minutes before serving.

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. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Bread + buttertop 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. Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Celery + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,110 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

Eggs
Provide the main filling, with whites for texture and yolks for a rich, creamy layer.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the bread and helps keep it from soaking up the filling.
Mayonnaise
Adds moisture and creaminess, binding the egg filling and softening the bread.
Shredded celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh, slightly savoury flavour that contrasts the rich egg.
Bread
Provides the structure that holds the layered filling together.

The step that matters

Press the sandwiches gently, then let them rest. Gentle pressing compacts the layers so they hold together when cut, without squeezing out the filling. Resting lets the moisture from the mayonnaise and egg settle into the bread, so the sandwiches cut cleanly and hold their shape.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, butter, lettuce. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes