Name: Ego Sandwiches
Ingredients: finely minced meat; bread; butter

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 ↓

Ego Sandwiches

Ingredients

finely minced meat
bread
butter

Directions

Butter the loaf of bread lightly.
Slice the bread with a sharp knife and trim off the crusts.
For picnics, wrap the sandwiches in paraffin paper.
For teas, cut the sandwiches into triangles, fancy shapes, or finger lengths, and serve on a napkin.
For a variation, use very soft, spongy bread, cut it thin, roll it, and tie with ribbon.

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).
Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).