Name: Watercress Sandwiches
Ingredients: watercress; coarse sea salt; black pepper; vinegar; creamy cottage cheese; thinly-sliced white bread

Why it works: Watercress and pepper work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 983 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Watercress Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Season watercress with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and a few drops of vinegar, then chop coarsely.
Mix the chopped watercress with creamy cottage cheese.
Spread the mixture on thinly-sliced white bread.

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.

Watercress + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together983 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Watercress + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cottage cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together72 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Watercress + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together307 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).