Name: Chicken Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1 cup cold boiled chopped chicken; ½ cup almonds or pecans, chopped; ¼ cup stuffed olives, chopped; mayonnaise dressing, to desired consistency; butter, for spreading; thin slices of bread; crisp lettuce leaves

Why it works: Almond and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 210 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients

1 cup cold boiled chopped chicken
½ cup almonds or pecans, chopped
¼ cup stuffed olives, chopped
mayonnaise dressing, to desired consistency
butter, for spreading
thin slices of bread
crisp lettuce leaves

Directions

In a bowl, combine the chicken, almonds or pecans, olives, and enough mayonnaise to achieve the right consistency.
Spread butter on thin slices of bread and place crisp lettuce leaves on top.
Add the chicken filling between two slices of bread to form sandwiches.

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 + lettucetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together210 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Olive + lettucetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,580 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Almond + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,888 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled chicken: Provides the main protein and bulk of the filling.
Mayonnaise dressing: Adds moisture and fat so the chicken filling binds and stays soft.
Almonds or pecans: Adds crunch that contrasts with the soft chicken and dressing.
Stuffed olives: Adds salty, briny flavor that cuts the richness of the mayonnaise.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, almond, olive, butter, bread):

Tomatofits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, almond, olive, butter, bread. 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.