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Allumettes d'Anchois — Anchovy Allumettes

Small puff pastry strips filled with anchovy fillets, brushed with egg yolk and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Allumettes d'Anchois — Anchovy Allumettes

Oven, in the book's wordsA medium oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a medium oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Roll out the puff pastry very thin and cut into strips 1 inch wide and 3½ inches long.

  2. Place an anchovy fillet on each strip of pastry.

  3. Moisten the edges of the pastry and cover with another strip, pressing to seal.

Bake

  1. Brush the top with beaten egg yolks.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 15 minutes.

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. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sauce + eggtop 39% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,895 recipes

Sauce and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,895 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Forms the flaky, layered casing that puffs and crisps around the filling as it bakes.
Anchovy fillets
Provide the salty, savoury flavour that defines the dish.
Beaten egg yolks
Brush on top to promote even browning and a glossy golden finish.

The step that matters

Sealing the edges. If the moistened edges are not pressed firmly together, the layers can separate or the filling can leak during baking, so the pastry may not puff evenly.

“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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