Name: Cheese Sandwich
Ingredients: 2 hard-boiled egg yolks; 1 tablespoon coconut butter or olive oil or peanut butter; 3 tablespoons grated cream cheese; a pinch of salt; slices of bread; lettuce, parsley, or watercress leaves

Why it works: Coconut and lettuce share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 54 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients

2 hard-boiled egg yolks
1 tablespoon coconut butter or olive oil or peanut butter
3 tablespoons grated cream cheese
a pinch of salt
slices of bread
lettuce, parsley, or watercress leaves

Directions

Prepare

Blend the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs with coconut butter, olive oil, or peanut butter.
Add the grated cream cheese and a pinch of salt, and mix well.

Assemble

Spread the mixture on slices of bread.
Top with lettuce, parsley, or watercress leaves.

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.

Coconut + lettucetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together54 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Coconut + cream cheesetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together200 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Cream cheese + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together166 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg yolks: Provide the creamy base and rich flavor of the filling.
Cream cheese: Adds creaminess and a mild tang that thickens the spread.
Coconut butter, olive oil, or peanut butter: Adds fat, making the filling smooth and spreadable.