Name: Sandwiches
Ingredients: 3 ounces cream cheese, chopped fine; 1 teaspoon butter; 1 teaspoon anchovy paste; a few chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts); salt to taste; white pepper to taste; thin slices of white bread; watercress for garnish

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a bowl, mix cream cheese, butter, anchovy paste, and chopped nuts.
Season with salt and white pepper to taste.
Cut the crusts off the bread slices.

Assemble and serve

Spread the mixture between two slices of bread.
Garnish with watercress.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,747 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Anchovy + watercresstop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together63 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 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

Cream cheese: Provides a soft, creamy base that holds the spread together and keeps it moist.
Butter: Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture that spreads easily.
Anchovy paste: Adds a salty, savory depth that gives the spread its distinctive flavor.
Chopped nuts: Add a crunchy texture that contrasts with the creamy spread.
White bread: Provides a soft, neutral base that carries the filling.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, butter, anchovy, nuts, bread, watercress):

Capersfits better
Parsleyfits better
Nutmegfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, butter, anchovy, nuts, bread, watercress. 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.