Why it works: Lettuce and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,483 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Club Sandwich
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the bread into thin slices and toast until golden brown.
Slice the turkey and ham very thin.
On one slice of toast, layer some turkey and ham.
Add a lettuce leaf and spread a little mayonnaise on top.
Slice the pickle very thin and add it to the sandwich.
Layer more turkey and ham, then top with another slice of toast.
Cut the sandwich into a diamond shape and serve on a platter garnished with parsley.
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.
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Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,483 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Bread + turkeytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together822 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Turkey + hamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together303 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together602 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, turkey, ham, parsley):
- Carrotfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, turkey, ham, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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