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Sardines on Toast

Sardines served on toast with butter, anchovy paste, Tabasco sauce, and Sauternes wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sardines on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Drain and remove the skins from the sardines.

Cook and serve

  1. In a pan, combine the butter, anchovy paste, Tabasco sauce, and Sauternes wine.

  2. Add the sardines carefully and heat through.

  3. Serve each sardine on a small strip of toast.

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.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Anchovy + winetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together354 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Sardines
Form the main protein and carry the rich, savoury flavour of the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the sauce coat the sardines smoothly.
Anchovy paste
Contributes concentrated savoury, salty depth to the buttery sauce.
Sauternes wine
Adds mild sweetness and acidity that balance the salty, rich flavours.

The step that matters

Heating the sardines through. Sardines are delicate and can break apart or toughen if overheated. Gentle heat warms them while keeping them tender and intact in the sauce.

“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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