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Anchovy Canapes

A small appetizer of crustless bread topped with anchovy paste, lemon juice, olives, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Anchovy Canapes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spread

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl with a fork.

  2. Add the anchovy paste, lemon juice, and chopped olives; mix thoroughly.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Spread the mixture on the toast.

  2. Arrange a ring of finely chopped egg white around the edge.

  3. Place a small mound of egg yolks, rubbed through a fine sieve, in the center.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Anchovy + olivetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together880 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovy paste
Provides the salty, savory flavor that defines the canapé.
Hard boiled eggs
Egg whites and yolks add contrast in texture and a mild richness as garnish.
Butter
Binds the spread and adds fat for a smooth, spreadable texture.
Olives
Add salty, briny bite and finely chopped pieces give the spread texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the salty anchovy flavor.

The step that matters

Chopping the olives very fine and mixing thoroughly. Finely chopped olives and a fully combined mixture spread evenly and give each bite a consistent flavor rather than chunks of strong anchovy or olive.

“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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