Name: Peanut Sandwiches
Ingredients: freshly roasted peanuts; salt; cream cheese; unbuttered bread

Why it works: Peanut and cream cheese work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 163 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Peanut Sandwiches

Ingredients

freshly roasted peanuts
salt
cream cheese
unbuttered bread

Directions

Shell and skin the peanuts.
Roll the peanuts into fine crumbs on a pastry board.
Add salt to taste.
Mix the powdered nuts with enough cream cheese to make a spreadable paste.
Spread the mixture on unbuttered bread.
Keep in a cold, damp place until ready to serve.

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.

Peanut + cream cheesetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together163 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Peanut + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Cream cheese + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together166 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).