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Sardine Sandwiches

A sandwich made with sardines, hard boiled eggs, dill pickle, mustard or salad dressing, served on a lettuce leaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sardine Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the sardines.

  2. Grind the hard boiled eggs and dill pickle.

Assemble and serve

  1. Blend all ingredients together.

  2. Serve on a lettuce leaf.

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.

  1. Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Dill + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together560 recipes

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

  3. Dill + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together159 recipes

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

  4. Egg + dilltop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,008 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + mustardtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,210 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sardines
Provides the main flavor and oily richness of the filling.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and richness, helping the filling hold together.
Dill pickle
Adds sharp acidity and crunch that cut the richness of the fish.
Prepared mustard or salad dressing
Adds moisture and tang, binding the mixture and sharpening its flavor.

Swap the dill

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, mustard, lettuce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Dillthe original
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, lettuce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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