Name: Anchovy Eggs
Ingredients: one teaspoonful of chopped parsley; three-quarters pint of milk; one teaspoonful of sugar; one tablespoonful of flour; two ounces of butter; half pint of good stock; one pint of cream; half pint of cream; half pound of mushrooms; one ounce of butter; a small bunch of parsley; six eggs; one teacupful of rich gravy; one small onion; eight fine green peppers; one eeg; eight eggs; one large spanish onion; one tablespoon- ful of curry powder; one lemon; two onions; one dessertspoonful of flour; one table- spoonful of curry powder; three tablespoon- fuls of cream; four eggs; salt; pepper; parsley; vinegar

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,132 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Whites set around the filling and yolks bind it into a firm mixture.
Anchovy paste (in the method): Adds a salty, savoury flavour to the yolk filling.
Bread crumbs (in the method): Form a crisp, golden coating when fried.
Lard (in the method): Conducts heat to brown and crisp the coated eggs.

The step that matters

Skewering before frying. Toothpicks hold the halved eggs together so the filling stays inside the whites. Coating and frying an eggs that are not held firmly can let the filling leak out into the hot lard.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, flour, butter, cream, mushroom, egg):

Nutmegfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Capersfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, flour, butter, cream, mushroom, egg. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Anchovy Eggs

Anchovy Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

Coat and fry

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)