Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Anchovy Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.
Add the essence of anchovies and lemon juice.
Stir well and serve very hot.
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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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Melted butter carries the flavour and gives the sauce its rich, smooth body.
- Essence of anchovies
- Adds a salty, savoury depth that defines the sauce's character.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances the saltiness of the anchovy.
The step that matters
Melting the butter over low heat. Butter is an emulsion of fat, water and milk solids. Gentle heat melts it without browning or separating, keeping the sauce smooth once the lemon juice goes in.
“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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