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Smoked Salmon Sandwiches

A sandwich of buttered bread with anchovy paste and thin smoked salmon, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Smoked Salmon Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bread into round or oval shapes.

  2. Butter the bread slices lightly.

Assemble

  1. Spread a little anchovy paste on the buttered side.

  2. Place thin slices of smoked salmon between two slices.

  3. Press the sandwiches together and trim the edges neatly.

Serve

  1. Serve on a napkin or dish paper, garnished with 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.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  3. Anchovy + salmontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together535 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. Anchovy + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Provides the structure that holds the filling together.
Butter
Adds richness and a barrier that keeps the bread from soaking up moisture.
Anchovy paste
Adds a salty, savoury depth that complements the smoked salmon.
Smoked salmon
Supplies the main flavour, smoky and salty, and the filling's texture.

The step that matters

Press the sandwiches together and trim the edges neatly. Pressing firmly helps the buttered bread bond to the thin salmon slices so the filling stays in place, and a clean trim keeps the layers from sliding apart when cut.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, anchovy, salmon):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, anchovy, salmon. 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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