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Caviar Sandwiches

Caviar sandwiches are thin bread slices topped with caviar, salad dressing, optional onion, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,676 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Caviar Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine caviar, salad dressing, and chopped onion (if using).

  2. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, removing any seeds.

  3. Spread the mixture over dry thin slices of bread.

  4. Form sandwiches and cut them into finger shapes.

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. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

  2. Caviar + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together65 recipes

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

  3. Onion + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Lemon + breadtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Caviar + oniontop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together46 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Caviar
Provides the main flavour and salty, briny character of the filling.
Salad dressing
Adds moisture and creaminess that binds the filling and lets it spread over bread.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, salty flavour of the caviar.

The step that matters

Spread the mixture over dry thin slices of bread. Bread that is damp or thick will soften and go soggy under the moist filling. Keeping the slices dry and thin helps the sandwich hold its shape and texture.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (caviar, lemon, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against caviar, lemon, 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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