Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Anchovy Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak, wipe, and bone the anchovies.
Make the butter
Pound them in a mortar with the butter and lemon juice.
Pass the mixture through a sieve.
Form small pats and place them on broiled meats or fish.
Serve
Serve before the butter dissolves.
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.
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Anchovies
- Provide the salty, savory flavor that defines the butter.
- Fresh butter
- Carries the anchovy flavor and gives the mixture a soft, spreadable body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich, salty butter.
The step that matters
Serve before the butter dissolves. Butter softens and melts at room or warm temperatures, so pats left out too long lose their shape and run into the food. Serving promptly keeps the pats firm and the flavor fresh.
“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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