Name: Sandwiches, Country Club
Ingredients: 12 slices of toast; cooked chicken or tongue, thinly sliced; coarse sea salt; black pepper; bacon, broiled, 2 rashers per sandwich; lettuce; mayonnaise; sliced tomato

Why it works: Lettuce and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sandwiches, Country Club

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the toast

Toast the bread until golden brown.

Assemble

On 6 slices of toast, layer thin slices of chicken or tongue.
Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Add 2 rashers of broiled bacon on top of each.
Cover with lettuce, mayonnaise, and sliced tomato.
Top with the remaining slices of toast.

Serve

Cut each sandwich crosswise and serve with a knife and fork.

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.

Lettuce + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,031 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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

Chicken or tongue: Provides the main protein and substantial, meaty bulk in each sandwich.
Bacon: Adds salty, savory fat and crisp texture from broiling.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and moisture, binding the layers and keeping the bread from drying out.
Toast: Gives a crisp, sturdy structure that holds the layered filling.