Why it works: Lemon and watercress match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 579 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Anchovy Baskets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the baskets
Cut the top part of the egg whites to form oval baskets.
Make the filling
Remove the yolks and mash them with anchovy essence, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper, then add carmine or cochineal for color.
Fill and serve
Refill the egg white baskets with the yolk mixture.
Garnish with watercress before serving.
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.
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Lemon + watercresstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together579 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Pepper + watercresstop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together983 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,330 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Anchovy + watercresstop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together63 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whites form the edible baskets, and mashed yolks make a creamy, rich filling.
- Anchovy essence
- Adds salty, savoury depth to the yolk filling.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich yolk filling.
- Cayenne pepper
- Adds mild heat to the filling.
- Carmine or cochineal
- Gives the filling its red colour.
The step that matters
Cutting the egg white baskets. Hard-boiled egg whites are firm but can crack or tear when cut. Cutting slowly with a sharp knife keeps the rim intact so the baskets hold their oval shape and the filling stays inside.
“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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