Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Anchovy Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the anchovies
Soak the anchovies in cold water for several hours.
Cut up the anchovies and stew them in a little water for 20 minutes.
Strain the mixture into a teacup of drawn butter.
Finish and serve
Pour the mixture into a saucepan and heat it until it boils.
Serve in a sauce tureen and add a little cayenne pepper and a squeeze of lemon.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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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
- Anchovies
- Provide a salty, savoury depth that flavours the butter sauce.
- Drawn butter
- Forms the rich, fatty base that carries the sauce's flavour and texture.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances the saltiness.
The step that matters
Heating the mixture to a boil. Once the strained anchovy mixture is added to the butter, boiling can cause the butter to separate or the sauce to turn greasy and grainy. Heat gently and keep the sauce from overcooking so it stays smooth.
“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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