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Anchovy Croutons

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Anchovy Croutons

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Slice white bread into strips or triangles.

  2. Fry the bread in hot butter until pale brown.

  3. Drain the bread and let it cool quickly to become crisp.

  4. Top each piece with a thin slice of cool tomato.

  5. Add a translucent shaving of cucumber.

  6. Place shredded anchovy on top and sprinkle with paprika and lemon juice.

  7. Press lightly with a knife to keep everything in place.

  8. Keep cold until served.

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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cucumber + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,067 recipes

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

  4. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, tomato, cucumber, anchovy):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits about as well
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, tomato, cucumber, anchovy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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