Name: Ham and Veal Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon mustard; 2 tablespoons mayonnaise; 4 drops Tabasco sauce; whole wheat bread

Why it works: Wheat and bread match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 209 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ham and Veal Sandwiches

Ingredients

1 teaspoon mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
4 drops Tabasco sauce
whole wheat bread

Directions

In a bowl, mix the mustard, mayonnaise, and Tabasco sauce.
Spread the mixture between slices of whole wheat 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.

Wheat + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Mustard + wheattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together134 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,120 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,484 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,934 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).