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Chicken Sandwiches

A sandwich made with cold boiled chopped chicken, almonds or pecans, olives, mayonnaise, buttered bread, and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 210 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the chicken, almonds or pecans, and chopped olives.

  2. Add enough mayonnaise dressing to achieve the right consistency.

Assemble the sandwiches

  1. Spread butter on thin slices of bread.

  2. Place crisp lettuce leaves on the buttered bread.

  3. Spoon the chicken filling between the slices to form sandwiches.

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. Almond + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,580 recipes

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

  3. Almond + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,875 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,888 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the bulk of the filling and provides the main protein and texture.
Mayonnaise dressing
Binds the filling and adds moisture and richness.
Almonds or pecans
Add crunch that contrasts with the soft chicken and dressing.
Butter
Coats the bread to add fat and flavor and limit sogginess from the filling.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, almond, olive, butter, 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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