Name: Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 cup cream cheese, grated; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon paprika; 1 teaspoon mustard; ¼ cup English walnut meats, chopped; 4 slices of buttered bread

Why it works: Mustard and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 849 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

In a bowl, combine the grated cream cheese, salt, paprika, mustard, and chopped walnuts.

Assemble and serve

Spread the mixture between two slices of buttered bread.
Cut the sandwich into halves or quarters and serve.

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.

Mustard + walnuttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together849 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Cream cheese + walnuttop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together439 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Mustard + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together855 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,035 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese: Provides the creamy, moist body that holds the sandwich filling together.
English walnut meats: Adds crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft cheese.
Mustard: Adds sharp, tangy flavour that cuts through the richness of the cheese.