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Smoked Salmon and Anchovy Canapes

A canapé of stale bread topped with anchovy butter, smoked salmon, egg, and pimentos or olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Smoked Salmon and Anchovy Canapes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bread

  1. Cut stale bread into ¼‑inch slices and remove the crusts.

  2. Cut the slices into fancy shapes such as squares, rounds, or triangles.

  3. Sauté the bread shapes in butter until golden.

Make and assemble the canapés

  1. Pound anchovies in a mortar and mix with butter to create a spread.

  2. Spread the anchovy mixture on the canapés.

  3. Top with flaked smoked salmon, finely chopped whites of hard-boiled eggs, and yolks forced through a strainer.

  4. Garnish with pimentos or olives stuffed with anchovies.

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

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

  2. Bread + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Salmon + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,942 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Provides a firm, crisp base that holds the toppings without going soggy.
Butter
Browns the bread for color and flavor, and carries the anchovy spread.
Anchovies
Adds a salty, savory depth that seasons the spread.
Smoked salmon
Contributes smoky flavor and a tender, silky texture on top.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add creamy richness and contrast in texture through the chopped whites and crumbly yolks.

The step that matters

Sauté the bread shapes in butter until golden. Bread browns quickly once its sugars and starches caramelize, so it can go from golden to burnt in seconds. Even color gives a crisp surface that resists moisture from the spread and toppings.

“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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