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Spanish Sandwiches

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 624 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Spanish Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove bones from anchovies and cut them into 1-inch strips.

  2. In a bowl, combine capers, parsley, cayenne pepper, mustard, tarragon, oil, egg yolks, and salt to make a smooth paste.

  3. Butter thin slices of graham bread and spread the paste on them.

  4. On half of the slices, place the anchovy strips and sprinkle with chopped egg whites.

  5. Top with the remaining slices of bread and press down gently.

  6. Cut the sandwiches into smaller squares or diamond shapes with a sharp knife.

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. Capers + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together624 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Capers + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mustard + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together901 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (capers, parsley, pepper, tarragon, egg, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against capers, parsley, pepper, tarragon, egg, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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