Name: Pinola Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 small bottle stuffed olives; 6 sour cucumber pickles; bread; mayonnaise dressing

Why it works: Olive and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Pinola Sandwiches

Ingredients

1 small bottle stuffed olives
6 sour cucumber pickles
bread
mayonnaise dressing

Directions

Chop the pinolas from the stuffed olives with the sour cucumber pickles.
Spread thin pieces of bread with mayonnaise dressing.
Add the chopped mixture on top and roll the bread.
Serve immediately.

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.

Olive + cucumbertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,091 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Cucumber + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together344 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Stuffed olives: Provide the salty, briny flavour and chopped filling texture.
Sour cucumber pickles: Add acidity and crisp bite that contrasts with the soft bread.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds fat and moisture, helping the filling bind to the bread.