Name: Curry Sandwiches
Ingredients: 8 hard-boiled egg yolks; ½ cup butter, softened; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon curry powder; 1 tablespoon fine breadcrumbs; 1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar

Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Curry Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs, softened butter, salt, curry powder, and breadcrumbs.
Pound the mixture to a smooth paste.
Moisten the paste with tarragon vinegar to achieve desired consistency.

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.

Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,547 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + tarragontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,572 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Egg + tarragontop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,789 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).