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Cheese Canapes

Cheese canapes are chilled bread rounds topped with a smooth cheese and mustard mixture and finished with chopped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cheese Canapes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the topping

  1. In a bowl, mix the grated cheese, mustard, anchovy sauce, cayenne, salt, anchovy vinegar, butter, and egg yolks until smooth.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the mixture on rounds of buttered bread.

  2. Top with the chopped or sieved egg whites.

  3. Serve cold.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Provides rich flavour and body to the spread, helping it hold together.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, spreadable texture and rich flavour.
Mustard
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the cheese and butter.
Anchovy sauce
Contributes savoury, salty depth of flavour.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, anchovy, sauce, pepper, vinegar, butter, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, anchovy, sauce, pepper, vinegar, butter, egg. 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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