Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Chicken Sandwiches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Boil the eggs for 15 minutes, then cool them.
Remove the yolks and mash them as fine as possible.
Make the paste
Mix the mashed yolks with melted butter, lemon juice, chopped chicken, stock, salt, and pepper until a paste forms.
Serve
Use the mixture to make delicate sandwiches for a late supper or card party.
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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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,148 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,092 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Mashed yolks bind the chicken into a smooth, spreadable paste.
- Melted butter
- Fat adds richness and moisture, keeping the filling soft and spreadable.
- Chicken
- Provides the main savory bulk and texture of the filling.
- Lemon juice
- Acidity brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the butter and yolks.
The step that matters
Mash the yolks as fine as possible. Fine mashing gives a smooth paste without lumps. Lumps of yolk or chicken make the sandwich filling uneven and hard to spread.
“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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