Name: Olive Sandwiches
Ingredients: Thin slices of bread; Butter; ⅓ cup cream cheese; ⅓ cup cream; ⅓ cup salad dressing; Chopped olives

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Olive Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Butter the slices of bread evenly.
Cut the bread into hexagon shapes.

Assemble

Mix cream cheese, cream, and salad dressing to form a paste.
Spread the paste between two slices of bread.
Top with a thick layer of chopped olives.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + cream cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,747 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Bread + olivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,091 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Cream cheese + olivetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,003 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese: Provides a soft, creamy body that binds the filling into a spreadable paste.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, loosening the cream cheese into a smooth spread.
Salad dressing: Adds tang and sweetness that flavour the paste and help it hold together.
Chopped olives: Contribute salty, briny flavour and a contrasting texture on top of the paste.

“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.