Why it works: Dates and fig work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓
Rolled Sandwiches
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the crusts off the bread and slice it thin.
Butter the slices.
Spread with your choice of minced meats, chopped nuts, chopped dates, stewed figs, or cheese.
Roll the slices tightly with your hands.
Wrap in a damp napkin and let stand for several hours.
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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Dates + figtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together318 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + figtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together374 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, meat, dates, fig, cheese):
- Pecansfits better
- Walnutfits better
- Almondfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, meat, dates, fig, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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