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Olive Squares

A sandwich made from olives, celery, mustard, ketchup, cracker dust, mayonnaise, and bread, cut into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Olive Squares

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Chop and pound the olives and celery to a pulp.

  2. Mix in the mustard, ketchup, cracker dust, and mayonnaise.

Assemble and cut

  1. Cut the crusts off the bread loaf.

  2. Spread a little of the mixture on the end of the loaf and cut off a thin slice.

  3. Repeat until you have enough slices.

  4. Stack the slices as sandwiches and cut into 3-inch squares.

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.

  1. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Olive + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Tomato + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together468 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Olives
Provide the main briny flavour and chopped texture of the filling.
Mayonnaise
Binds the filling and adds moisture and richness so it spreads easily.
Cracker dust
Absorbs moisture and helps thicken the spread so it holds together.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and mild freshness to the filling.

The step that matters

Spread a little of the mixture on the end of the loaf and cut off a thin slice.. If the slices are cut thick or uneven, the filling-to-bread ratio and layering will be off, and the sandwiches may be soggy or fall apart. Keeping slices thin and even helps each square hold together.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, celery, tomato, ketchup, wheat):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, celery, tomato, ketchup, wheat. 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.

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