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Walnut Sandwiches

A sandwich with walnut and mayonnaise mixture on lettuce, and a second sandwich with cream cheese, anchovy, and nuts on bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 491 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Walnut Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the walnut filling

  1. Mix chopped walnuts with mayonnaise.

  2. Place a teaspoon of the mixture on a lettuce leaf.

  3. Serve between slices of brown bread.

Make the cheese sandwiches

  1. Spread butter on thin slices of bread.

  2. Sprinkle with grated cheese.

  3. Press another slice on top.

  4. Mix cream cheese, butter, anchovy, and chopped nuts.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Spread the mixture between slices of white bread.

  7. Garnish with watercress.

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. Walnut + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together491 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Cheese + cream cheesetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Walnut + pecanstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

English walnuts
Provide the crunchy texture and nutty flavour of the walnut filling.
Mayonnaise
Binds the chopped walnuts into a spreadable filling and adds richness and moisture.
Cream cheese
Adds creamy body and a mild tang to the spread between the white bread slices.
Anchovy paste
Adds a salty, savoury depth that seasons the cheese spread.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, lettuce, bread, butter, cheese, cream cheese, anchovy):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, lettuce, bread, butter, cheese, cream cheese, anchovy. 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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