Why it works: Anchovy and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,697 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Anchovy Paste
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, combine the essence of anchovy, melted butter, and cayenne pepper.
Beat the mixture well with a spoon until it thickens.
Transfer the paste into a jar for storage.
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.
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Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Anchovy + peppertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,232 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Essence of anchovy
- Provides the main savoury, salty flavour of the paste.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the paste set smooth and firm when beaten.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture well until it thickens. Beating incorporates air and blends the melted butter evenly with the anchovy essence. Thorough mixing keeps the paste smooth and prevents separation, so it holds together as a spreadable paste.
“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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