Name: Chicken Sandwiches
Ingredients: cooked chicken, chopped; mayonnaise dressing; thin sliced bread; lettuce leaves

Why it works: Chicken and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,258 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients

cooked chicken, chopped
mayonnaise dressing
thin sliced bread
lettuce leaves

Directions

Chop the cooked chicken and mix it with mayonnaise dressing.
Place the mixture between two slices of thin bread.
Add a lettuce leaf to each sandwich.

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.

Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Bread + lettucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Chicken + lettucetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,421 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken: Provides the main protein and bulk filling for the sandwich.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds moisture and richness, binding the chicken into a spreadable filling.
Thin sliced bread: Holds the filling and gives the sandwich its structure.