Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Smoked Salmon Sandwiches
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut bread into ⅛-inch thick slices and stamp out with a round or oval cutter.
Lightly butter the bread slices.
Spread a little anchovy paste on the butter.
Assemble and serve
Place thin slices of smoked salmon between two slices of bread and press the slices together.
Arrange the sandwich on a napkin or dish paper and garnish with parsley.
Serve.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,260 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
-
Anchovy + salmontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together535 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Anchovy + parsleytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,702 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and a moist layer that keeps the bread from soaking up the filling.
- Anchovy paste
- Adds a salty, savoury depth that complements the smoked salmon.
- Smoked salmon
- Provides the main flavour and a soft, silky texture in the filling.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, anchovy, salmon):
- Capersfits better
- Parsleythe original
- Garlicfits about as well
- Thymefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, anchovy, salmon. 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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