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Angels on Horseback

A savory appetizer of toasted bread topped with anchovy paste, bacon, oyster, butter, lemon, parsley, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Angels on Horseback

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the croutons

  1. Cut round pieces of bread about 2 inches in diameter and ¼ inch thick.

  2. Fry the bread in clarified butter until light golden.

Assemble

  1. Spread anchovy paste on one side of each crouton.

  2. Top each crouton with a piece of crispy bacon.

  3. Place a trimmed oyster on top of each crouton.

  4. Drizzle with oiled butter, lemon juice, and sprinkle with chopped parsley and cayenne pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a hot oven (400°F/200°C) until the oysters are heated through.

  2. Serve immediately with heated oyster liquor poured around the croutons.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Anchovy + oystertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the crisp base that holds the toppings together.
Clarified butter
Fries the bread to a light golden crust and adds rich flavour.
Anchovy paste
Adds a salty, savoury depth that complements the oysters.
Streaky bacon
Adds smoky, salty fat and a crisp contrast to the soft oysters.
Oysters
Provide the delicate, briny flesh that is heated through in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until the oysters are just heated through. Oysters are delicate and overcook quickly in a hot oven, becoming tough and rubbery. Heating them only until they are warmed through keeps them tender and juicy.

“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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