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Devilled Butter

A spread made from butter, herbs, anchovies, curry paste, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Devilled Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the herb mixture

  1. Combine shallot, tarragon, chervil, parsley, and chili vinegar in a small saucepan; bring to a boil, then drain and let cool.

Make the butter

  1. Wipe and bone the anchovies, then pound them in a mortar with the curry paste, butter, hard-boiled egg yolk, and the cooled herbs and shallot.

  2. Add a dust of cayenne or Nepaul pepper, then rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Serve

  1. Use the devilled butter for broiled meat, fish, biscuits, toast, or as desired.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Shallot + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together266 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Shallot + parsleytop 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

Butter
Provides fat and a rich, smooth body that carries the other flavours.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the butter.
Hard-boiled egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the mixture into a smooth paste.
Curry paste
Contributes warm spice and aroma to the butter.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a fine sieve. Pounding alone leaves fibrous herb and shallot bits; pressing the mixture through a fine sieve breaks them down so the butter spreads smoothly and the texture is even.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, tarragon, chervil, vinegar, butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, tarragon, chervil, vinegar, butter, egg, pepper. 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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