Name: Fish Sandwiches
Ingredients: remains of cooked fish (preferably salmon); lettuce or mustard and cress; slices of thin bread; butter; a little salt; a little pepper

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble

Spread butter on a slice of bread.
Place cold fish on the buttered bread.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Add finely cut lettuce or cress on top.
Cover with another slice of buttered bread.

Serve

Cut into three-cornered pieces and garnish with parsley.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + salmontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,078 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked fish: Provides the main filling and savoury flavour of the sandwich.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and keeps the bread from soaking up moisture from the filling.
Thin bread: Forms the structure that holds the filling together.
Lettuce or mustard and cress: Adds crisp texture and fresh, slightly peppery flavour.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, salmon, bread, butter, pepper):

Tomatofits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, salmon, bread, butter, pepper. 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.