Name: Anchovies, Nobwegian Style
Ingredients: fillets of Norwegian anchovies; 3 hard-boiled eggs; chopped tarragon; chopped chervil; red pepper (paprika or cayenne); oil; vinegar; lemon slices; parsley

Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Anchovies, Nobwegian Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Trim the anchovy fillets neatly.
Chop 2 hard-boiled eggs coarsely, keeping yolk and white separate.

Assemble and garnish

In small dishes, layer the chopped egg, seasoning with tarragon, chervil, and red pepper.
Drizzle with oil and vinegar.
Arrange the anchovy fillets on top in a lattice pattern.
Garnish with lemon slices, quarters of the remaining hard-boiled egg, and parsley.

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.

Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together824 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,563 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,137 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Chervil + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together774 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Fillets of norwegian anchovies: Provides a salty, savoury flavour that is the dish's main taste.
Hard-boiled eggs: Give the salad body and richness as the main bulk of the chopped filling.
Tarragon: Adds a distinct aromatic anise-like flavour to the chopped egg.
Chervil: Adds a delicate, fresh aroma that lightens the richness of the egg.
Oil: Adds fat and smooth mouthfeel that carries the flavours of the dish.
Vinegar: Adds sharp acidity that cuts through the richness of the oil and egg.

“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.