Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Anchovy Toast
makes 12 toastsIngredients
Directions
Prepare the anchovy paste
Wash the anchovies and remove the bones.
Pound the anchovies with the butter and rub through a fine sieve.
Assemble the toasts
Fry the bread slices lightly until golden.
Spread the anchovy mixture on one side of each slice and stack them to make 12 toasts.
Beat the egg yolk and white together and brush over the toasts.
Dip the toasts lightly in bread crumbs.
Fry and serve
Fry the toasts in hot lard just before serving.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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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 the main salty, savoury flavour that defines the toast.
- Fresh butter
- Pounded with the anchovies to make a smooth, spreadable paste with added richness.
- Egg
- Brushed over the toasts to help the bread crumbs adhere and form a coating.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating on the outside of the toasts when fried.
- Hot lard
- Fries the toasts quickly, browning and crisping the crumb coating.
The step that matters
Fry the toasts in hot lard just before serving. The coating must be hot enough to crisp and brown quickly. If the fat is too cool, the toasts absorb grease and turn soggy, and holding them long after frying loses that crispness.
“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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