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Anchovy Pasties

A pastry filled with anchovies, coated with beaten egg, Parmesan, and cayenne, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,322 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Anchovy Pasties

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the anchovies

  1. Scrape, wipe, and remove the bones from the anchovies.

Assemble the pasties

  1. Roll out the short or puff paste and enclose each anchovy neatly.

  2. Trim the edges and place them on a baking sheet.

  3. Brush the pasties with the beaten egg.

  4. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese and a pinch of cayenne pepper on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 10 minutes.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Egg + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Gorgona anchovies
Provide the salty, savoury fish filling at the centre of the pasty.
Short or puff paste
Encloses the anchovies and bakes into a flaky, crisp casing.
Beaten egg
Gives the pastry a glossy, golden browned surface when baked.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and browns on top as it bakes.

The step that matters

Brush the pasties with the beaten egg. An even, thin coat of egg promotes uniform browning and a glossy finish. Pooling egg can cause patchy colour and soggy spots, while a dry surface may bake pale.

“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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