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Sardines with Anchovy Butter

Sardines cooked in melted butter with anchovy paste, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,368 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Sardines with Anchovy Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Optionally, rub the chafing dish with a cut clove of garlic before adding the butter.

  2. Melt the butter in a chafing dish with the anchovy paste.

Cook the sardines

  1. Remove the skins from the sardines and place them in the melted butter for 3 to 4 minutes, basting with the butter.

Serve

  1. Serve the sardines on hot toast and cover with the butter.

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. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Anchovy + garlictop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together623 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Butter + garlictop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,572 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Butter + clovetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Carries the flavour and keeps the sardines moist while they cook.
Anchovy paste
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the butter.
Boneless sardines
Provide the main protein and rich flavour, cooked gently in the butter.
Hot toast
Gives a crisp, absorbent base that holds the buttery sauce.

The step that matters

Basting the sardines in the butter. Sardines are delicate and dry out quickly over heat. Keeping them coated in warm butter for 3 to 4 minutes keeps the flesh moist while it gently cooks through.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, anchovy, garlic):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, anchovy, garlic. 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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