Skip to main content
Main

Anchovy Aigrettes

Anchovy fillets marinated in oil, vinegar, and pepper, then fried and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Anchovy Aigrettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Marinate the anchovy fillets in salad oil, vinegar, and coralline pepper for 1 hour.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip each fillet in the frying batter.

  2. Fry the fillets in hot fat until golden brown, then drain.

  3. Garnish with chopped parsley and coralline pepper.

  4. Serve hot as a savory dish.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Anchovy + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Anchovy + peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovy fillets
Provide the main savory, salty flavor of the dish.
Frying batter
Forms a crisp golden coating that seals in moisture while frying.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the marinated anchovies.
Salad oil
Carries flavor into the anchovies during marinating and adds richness.

The step that matters

Fry the fillets in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisp. Frying until golden brown gives a crisp coating while the fish heats through.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against anchovy, vinegar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes