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Haddock and Anchovy Sandwiches

A sandwich made by boiling smoked haddock, mixing with butter and anchovy paste, seasoning, and using the mixture as filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Haddock and anchovy share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 75 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Haddock and Anchovy Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the smoked haddock, then drain and remove the meat from the bones.

  2. Pound the haddock in a mortar with the butter and anchovy paste.

  3. Add pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.

  4. Warm the mixture in a stewpan, stirring occasionally until it cools.

Make the sandwiches

  1. Use the mixture to make sandwiches.

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. Haddock + anchovytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together764 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Smoked haddock
Provides the main flaky, savoury body of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the filling rich and spreadable with moisture.
Anchovy paste
Adds salty, savoury depth that stands out against the fish.

The step that matters

Warming the mixture in a stewpan. Gentle, occasional stirring keeps the butter from separating and the fish from drying out or overcooking. Too much heat can make the fat split and the texture grainy.

“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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