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Nifty Sandwiches

A sandwich made with cream cheese, nuts, pimentos, celery, and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Nifty Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Chop the cream cheese, pimentos, celery, and nut meats in a bowl until very fine.

  2. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Mix in enough mayonnaise dressing to achieve a thick, moist consistency.

Assemble

  1. Spread the mixture on thin slices of rye or white bread.

  2. Optionally, add a lettuce leaf between the slices.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Cream cheese + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together102 recipes

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

  3. Meat + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,880 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cream cheese + celerytop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together169 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream cheese
Provides the rich, creamy base that binds the filling together.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds moisture and fat, giving the filling a thick, spreadable texture.
Nut meats
Contributes crunch and a toasty, savory flavor against the soft cheese.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and fresh, mild crunch to the filling.
Pimentos
Add sweet, mild flavor and bright red colour to the filling.

The step that matters

Chop until very fine. Finely chopped pieces spread evenly and keep the filling smooth, so it holds together on bread instead of tearing it or leaving chunks that fall out when cut.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, meat, pepper):

  1. Dillfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, meat, pepper. 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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