Name: Nut and Cheese Sandwich
Ingredients: walnuts or peanuts; thin slices of bread; Swiss cheese

Why it works: Bread and swiss cheese work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Nut and Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients

walnuts or peanuts
thin slices of bread
Swiss cheese

Directions

Grind or chop the walnuts or peanuts.
Spread the ground nuts over the slices of bread.
Sprinkle with Swiss cheese.

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 + swiss cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together35 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Walnut + swiss cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Walnut + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together714 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).