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Canapes À LA Edw. Van Tolkenberg

A canapé of ham and anchovy mixture topped with melted cheese on toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and swiss cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 151 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Canapes À LA Edw. Van Tolkenberg

Oven, in the book's wordsThe hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the ham paste

  1. Pound the ham in a mortar until smooth.

  2. Mix in the butter, anchovies, lemon or lime juice, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Pound the mixture again and refrigerate until needed.

Make the croutons

  1. Cut out 6 round pieces of bread and place them on a baking pan.

  2. Sprinkle a little clarified butter over each piece and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 4 minutes until golden.

Top and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine Parmesan cheese, Swiss cheese, and sweet cream; stir until melted and slightly cooled.

  2. Spread the ham mixture over the croutons, forming a dome shape.

  3. Top with the melted cheese mixture and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 minutes.

  4. Serve on a hot dish, garnished with an olive wrapped in half an anchovy.

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 + swiss cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together151 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean cooked ham
Forms the smooth, savory base of the spread.
Butter
Adds richness and helps bind the ham into a smooth paste.
Anchovies
Contribute a salty, savory depth to the spread.
Parmesan cheese
Melts into the topping and adds savory, browned flavor.
Stale bread
Forms the crisp base that holds the topping.

The step that matters

Baking the topped canapés. The cheese topping melts and browns quickly, so it can scorch if the oven is too hot or the bake runs too long. Watch closely for a light golden colour rather than dark browning.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, pepper, bread, parmesan cheese, swiss cheese, cream):

  1. Applefits about as well
  2. Pineapplefits about as well
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, pepper, bread, parmesan cheese, swiss cheese, cream. 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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