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Dessert

Anchovy Butter

Butter mixed with anchovies and parsley, formed into pats for breakfast or supper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,672 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, bone, and pound the anchovies well in a mortar.

  2. Scald the parsley, chop it, and rub through a sieve.

Make the butter

  1. For each pound of butter, add six anchovies and a small bunch of parsley.

  2. Pound all the ingredients together, mix well, and make the butter into pats immediately.

  3. Garnish with parsley.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + anchovytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,672 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Anchovy + parsleytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together28,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Forms the rich base that carries the anchovy and parsley flavours and sets firm when chilled.
Anchovies
Supply a salty, savoury depth that seasons the butter throughout.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma and a light herbal flavour to the butter.

The step that matters

Pound all the ingredients together and shape the pats immediately. Anchovies and parsley must be evenly blended into the butter so the flavour is consistent throughout. Once the butter firms up after mixing, it becomes hard to shape, so pats should be formed while it is still soft.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, anchovy):

  1. Capersabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, anchovy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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