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Anchovy-and-egg Canapes

Bread slices topped with butter, anchovy paste, hard‑cooked egg, and pickled beet garnish, served cold as an appetizer.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Anchovy-and-egg Canapes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bread

  1. Cut bread into one-fourth inch thick slices and cut into diamond or round shapes.

  2. Spread with butter and brown in oven.

Make the anchovy butter

  1. When cold, have ready some fresh butter beaten to a cream.

  2. Into this beat anchovy paste to tint and flavor as desired.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the bread lightly with the butter.

  2. Set a slice of hard-cooked egg in the center.

  3. Pipe a narrow thread of butter around the edge and fill the space between the egg and the edge with very finely chopped pickled beets.

  4. Serve cold as an appetizer at luncheon or dinner.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

635Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
96 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Pienot in our table0
Patenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and browns lightly on the bread.
Anchovy paste (in the method)
Adds salty, savoury flavour and tints the creamed butter.
Hard-cooked egg
Provides a firm, mild centre that contrasts with the spread bread.

The step that matters

Browning the bread in the oven. Toasting the bread surface dries it and gives it a light colour and crisp texture, so the butter spread stays firm rather than soaking in. Watch closely, because bread browns quickly and can scorch.

“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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