Name: Gherkin Toast
Ingredients: Squares of bread; Parmesan cheese; Gherkins; 1 hard-boiled egg; Coarse sea salt; Cayenne pepper

Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Gherkin Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the squares of bread until golden.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on each piece.
Chop the gherkins very finely and cover half of the toast with them.
Pass the hard-boiled egg yolk through a sieve and cover the other half of the toast with it.
Season with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

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 + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Bread + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together577 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Parmesan cheese + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,368 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).