Name: Salmagundi Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 Holland herring; ½ cup breast of roast chicken; ⅓ cup ham; 3 hard-boiled eggs; 1 small onion; French dressing; buttered bread

Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Salmagundi Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Wash, skin, and bone the herring.

Make the filling

Grind the herring, chicken, ham, eggs, and onion together.
Mix the ground ingredients with French dressing.

Assemble

Spread the mixture between slices of buttered bread.

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.

Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,497 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Holland herring: Provides the main savoury, oily fish flavour that defines the filling.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add body and a firm, creamy texture when ground into the filling.
French dressing: Moistens the ground mixture and adds tangy, acidic flavour.
Breast of roast chicken: Adds meaty substance and mild flavour to the filling.
Ham: Contributes salty, smoky meat flavour to the filling.