Name: Cream-cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients: ½ cup Philadelphia cream cheese; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 hard-boiled egg yolks, powdered; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon paprika; crackers (saltines or thin water biscuits)

Why it works: Cream cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,747 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Cream-cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients

½ cup Philadelphia cream cheese
2 tablespoons butter
2 hard-boiled egg yolks, powdered
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon paprika
crackers (saltines or thin water biscuits)

Directions

Make the filling

In a bowl, rub together the cream cheese and butter until smooth.
Add the powdered egg yolks, salt, and paprika; mix well.

Assemble

Spread the mixture between crackers or biscuits.

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.

Cream cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,747 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Cream cheese + biscuittop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together145 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,009 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Cream cheese + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,549 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese: Provides creamy body and a tangy, rich base for the spread.
Butter: Adds fat that makes the filling smooth and spreadable.
Hard-boiled egg yolks: Contribute richness and a dry, crumbly texture that thickens the spread.

“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.