Name: Nutted Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 cup English walnut meats; 8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese; ¼ cup sweet cream; ¼ teaspoon salt; a dash of cayenne pepper

Why it works: Walnut and cream cheese work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 439 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Nutted Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Grate or finely chop the English walnut meats.
In a bowl, mash the Philadelphia cream cheese with the sweet cream until smooth.
Gradually mix in the chopped walnuts.
Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.
Ensure the mixture is soft enough to spread easily.

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.

Walnut + cream cheesetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together439 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,039 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,035 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cream cheese + creamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,087 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
Meat + cream cheesetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together102 recipes

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