Name: Egg and Anchovy Sandwiches
Ingredients: 2 hard-boiled eggs; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon cayenne; 1 teaspoon anchovy essence; 2 boned anchovies; 1 oz butter; slices of bread and butter

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 ↓

Egg and Anchovy Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

Pound the eggs, anchovies, butter, anchovy essence, salt, pepper, and cayenne together in a mortar.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Assemble and serve

Spread some of the mixture onto a slice of buttered bread.
Top with another slice of bread, press together, and cut into fancy shapes.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,330 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs: Provide the bulk and creamy body of the filling.
Boned anchovies: Add a salty, savory depth of flavor to the filling.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, spreadable texture to the filling.
Anchovy essence: Intensifies the anchovy flavor throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a fine sieve. Forcing the filling through a fine sieve breaks down any remaining lumps of egg and anchovy, giving a smooth, even spread. Skipping or rushing this leaves a coarse texture that tears the bread.

“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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Egg and Anchovy Sandwiches