Why it works: Olive and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,091 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Olive Sandwiches
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Take equal parts of large and stuffed olives.
Mince the olives finely.
Mix the minced olives with a little thick mayonnaise.
Assemble the sandwiches
Spread the mixture on thin slices of buttered bread.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,091 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Large olives
- Provide the main olive flavor and bulk of the filling.
- Stuffed olives
- Add extra olive flavor and saltiness alongside the large olives.
- Thick mayonnaise
- Binds the minced olives into a spreadable paste and adds moisture and richness.
- Buttered bread
- Gives the sandwich its structure, and the butter adds fat and a barrier against moisture.
The step that matters
Mixing in the mayonnaise. Use only a little thick mayonnaise. Too much makes the minced olives runny, so the filling soaks into the thin bread and the sandwich turns soggy.
“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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