Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Pimento Sandwiches
Ingredients
Directions
Grind the pimentos, cream cheese, and hard boiled eggs together.
Add enough salad dressing and cream to create a spreadable paste.
Spread the mixture on thin slices of unbuttered bread.
Place a small lettuce leaf between two slices to assemble the sandwich.
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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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Cream cheese + creamtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,087 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together602 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Cream cheese + breadtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together166 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Cream cheese + lettucetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together213 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, egg, cream, bread):
- Chivefits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, egg, cream, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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