Name: Raisin Nut Sandwiches
Ingredients: 1½ cups raisins; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 cup nut meats; 2 tablespoons thick cream; thin slices of bread

Why it works: Meat and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Raisin Nut Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Run the raisins and nut meats through a food chopper.
Mix the salt and cream with the chopped mixture.
Spread the mixture between thin slices of bread.

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.

Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Raisin + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,111 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Raisin + meattop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together484 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Meat + creamtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,248 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cream + breadtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,789 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

Raisins: Add sweetness and a chewy texture to the filling.
Nut meats: Add body and a crunchy texture to the filling.
Thick cream: Adds moisture and fat, helping the chopped mixture hold together and spread.