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Savoury Anchovy Toast

A toast topped with a seasoned anchovy spread and fresh herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 450 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Savoury Anchovy Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the topping

  1. Pound the anchovies with parsley, shallot, chives, tarragon, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Flavour with lemon juice and moisten with sweet oil.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the mixture on hot buttered toast.

  2. Dish up on a folded napkin or dish paper.

  3. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.

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. Shallot + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together450 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Provide the salty, savoury base that forms the main flavour of the topping.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, salty anchovies.
Sweet oil
Moistens the pounded mixture so it spreads smoothly over the toast.
Buttered toast
Gives a crisp, warm base that holds the topping.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, shallot, tarragon, pepper, lemon):

  1. Chivethe original
  2. Kalefits about as well
  3. Lettucefits less well
  4. Arrowrootfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, shallot, tarragon, pepper, lemon. 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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