Why it works: Egg and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,330 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Anchovy Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the eggs
Carefully cut the hard boiled eggs in half and remove the yolks.
Trim a small piece off the ends of the egg whites so they can stand upright.
Fill and serve
Pound together the yolks, butter, and anchovy paste until smooth.
Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture.
Use a piping bag fitted with a rose tube to pipe some of the mixture on top of each egg.
Serve with salad or brown bread and butter.
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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Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,330 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pepper + anchovytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,232 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Egg + buttertop 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
- Eggs
- Provide the white shells that hold the filling and the yolks that form the creamy base.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, making the pounded yolk filling smooth and spreadable.
- Anchovy paste
- Adds savory, salty depth to the yolk filling.
The step that matters
Pound the yolks, butter, and anchovy paste until smooth. Yolks left in lumps will not blend into a smooth filling. Working the butter in fully gives a fat-based paste that holds its shape when piped and avoids grainy texture.
“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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