Name: Lemon Sandwiches
Ingredients: lemon cheese-cake mixture; almonds (optional); fine puff paste (1 lb); peach or apricot jam (4 to 6 oz); beaten egg (for sealing); sugar (for sprinkling)

Why it works: Almond and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 466 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lemon Sandwiches

Oven, in the book's wordsA fierce oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fierce oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Roll out fine puff paste very thin and square.
Place it on a baking sheet and cover with peach or apricot jam, leaving an inch from the edge.
Roll out a second piece of paste to the same size and lay it over the jam.
Moisten the edges with beaten egg or water and press them together securely.
Brush the top with water and sprinkle sugar thickly on it.
Mark the paste into divisions with the back of a knife.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes or until golden.
Cut while still hot along the marked lines.

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.

Almond + peachtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Lemon + peachtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together947 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Cheese + peachtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together69 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).