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Dessert

Anchovy Eclairs

A savory pastry filled with anchovy paste and butter, served as a hors d'oeuvre.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Anchovy Eclairs

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the choux paste

  1. In a medium saucepan, bring the water and butter with a pinch of salt to a boil.

  2. Stir in the flour and mix vigorously with a wooden spoon until smooth and not sticking to the pan.

  3. Let the mixture cool slightly.

  4. Gradually beat in the eggs and grated cheese, seasoning to taste.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into small eclairs of even size and place them on a buttered baking dish.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until light brown.

Fill and serve

  1. Once cooled, cut the sides of each eclair.

  2. Fill each eclair with about 1 teaspoon of anchovy paste mixed with a little butter or white sauce.

  3. Decorate the tops with green herb butter or lobster butter using a piping bag.

  4. Chill the eclairs until ready to serve as hors d'oeuvre.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Starch that sets with heat to form the hollow eclair structure.
Eggs
Add structure and lift, and help the paste puff and set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the choux paste.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and some browning to the baked shell.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown. Underbaked choux paste stays moist and collapses as it cools, while the shell must dry out to hold its hollow shape and filling.

“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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