Name: Russian Sandwiches
Ingredients: Boston brown bread, thinly sliced; Neufchâtel cheese or cream cheese, softened; Chopped olives; Chopped pimentoes; Mayonnaise dressing; Crisp heart leaves of lettuce

Why it works: Olive and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,580 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Russian Sandwiches

Ingredients

Boston brown bread, thinly sliced
Neufchâtel cheese or cream cheese, softened
Chopped olives
Chopped pimentoes
Mayonnaise dressing
Crisp heart leaves of lettuce

Directions

Cut thin slices of Boston brown bread into oval shapes.
Lightly butter half of the slices with Neufchâtel or cream cheese.
Mix chopped olives and pimentoes with mayonnaise dressing.
Spread the olive and pimento mixture on the remaining slices.
Press the buttered slices together with a crisp heart leaf of lettuce in between.
Serve immediately while the lettuce is fresh.

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 + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + olivetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,091 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Cheese + olivetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,802 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).
Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).