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Pyramid Sandwich

A layered sandwich with bread, pineapple, cucumber, tomato, mayonnaise, chicken or turkey, fish, olives, and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Pyramid Sandwich

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the bread into rounds, each smaller than the last.

  2. Place the largest slice on a bed of shredded lettuce.

  3. Top with the pineapple slice for the sweet course.

  4. Add the second largest slice with cucumber and tomato, seasoned with mayonnaise for the salad course.

  5. Layer the sliced chicken or turkey on the next slice, seasoning with salt and pepper for the meat course.

  6. Add lobster or sardine for the fish course.

  7. Finish with the smallest slice topped with whole olives or sliced pimento olives on shredded lettuce for the hors d'oeuvre.

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.

  1. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Cucumber + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown bread
Provides the stacked base layers that hold the sandwich's pyramid shape.
Mayonnaise
Adds moisture and richness to the cucumber and tomato salad course.
Chicken or turkey
Contributes the meat course and its savory, tender texture.
Pineapple
Adds sweetness and a touch of acidity to the sweet course.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, cucumber, tomato, chicken, pepper, lobster, olive):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cucumber, tomato, chicken, pepper, lobster, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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