Name: Avocado Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 ripe avocado; 1-2 chopped chili peppers or ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 4 slices of bread; butter

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 ↓

Avocado Sandwiches

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado
1-2 chopped chili peppers or ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 slices of bread
butter

Directions

Prepare the filling

Slice the avocado in half, remove the pit, and scoop the flesh into a bowl.
Mash the avocado and mix in the chopped chili peppers or cayenne pepper.

Assemble and serve

Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread.
Spread the avocado mixture between two slices of buttered bread.
Cut the sandwich in half and serve.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Avocado + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,455 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Avocado + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Avocado + buttertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together254 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Avocado: Provides creamy texture and moisture that makes up the sandwich filling.
Chili peppers: Add heat and a sharp, spicy flavour to the mashed avocado.
Bread: Gives the sandwich its structure and holds the filling in place.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, and a slight flavour to the bread.