Name: Egg Sandwiches
Ingredients: Fresh eggs; Watercress or mustard and cress; White or brown bread; Butter; Oil; Vinegar; Salt; Pepper

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 ↓

Egg Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the eggs for 15 minutes, then crack the shells and leave the eggs in cold water until completely cool.
Shell and slice the eggs thinly, season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle lightly with equal parts oil and vinegar.
Let the eggs sit for 15 minutes, then turn them carefully and season and sprinkle as before.
Wash and dry the cress thoroughly, then season it with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Cut thin slices of bread and butter them, spreading half with the prepared eggs and the other half with cress.
Press the sandwiches firmly together, trim away the crusts, and cut into shape.
Serve neatly on a folded napkin, garnished with small salad or watercress.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Watercress + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together983 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Watercress + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together465 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).