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Anchovy Sandwiches, Nelson Style

A sandwich with anchovy, butter, egg yolks, curry paste, cayenne, and Parmesan spread between buttered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 Sandwiches, Nelson Style

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Pound the anchovies in a mortar with the butter, egg yolks, curry paste, cayenne, and Parmesan until smooth.

Assemble and serve

  1. Butter one side of each bread slice, then spread the anchovy mixture over the buttered side of each slice.

  2. Press the slices together with the filling sides facing each other.

  3. Trim the edges to shape and serve on a folded napkin.

  4. Garnish with parsley and small radishes.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + radishtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together120 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + radishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together382 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

Anchovies
Provide the main savoury, salty flavour and a smooth paste base.
Egg yolks
Add richness and body, helping bind the filling into a smooth spread.
Butter
Adds fat for a creamy texture and helps the filling spread smoothly.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savoury depth to the filling.
Curry paste
Adds warm spice aroma to the anchovy filling.

The step that matters

Pounding the filling until smooth. Fully breaking down the anchovies and mixing in the yolks and butter gives an even paste. Lumps of fish would tear the thin bread slices and make the spread uneven.

Swap the radish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, pepper, parmesan cheese, bread, parsley):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Radishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, pepper, parmesan cheese, bread, parsley. 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.

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