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English Sandwiches

A sandwich with celery, walnuts, olives, capers, and mayonnaise on brown or Graham bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,688 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

English Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped celery, walnuts, olives, and capers.

  2. Season the mixture with coarse sea salt and paprika.

  3. Mix in enough mayonnaise to bind the ingredients.

  4. Spread the mixture onto thin slices of brown or Graham 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.

  1. Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Walnut + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Celery + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Walnut + caperstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together156 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Celery
Provides a crisp, fresh crunch that contrasts with the soft filling.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a slightly bitter, nutty flavour to the filling.
Olives
Add salty, briny flavour and a savoury depth.
Capers
Contribute sharp, briny acidity that brightens the filling.
Mayonnaise
Binds the chopped ingredients together and adds moisture and richness.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, olive, capers, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, olive, capers, bread. 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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