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Sardine Canape

A canapé topped with a sardine and egg yolk mixture, served on fried bread and garnished with olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sardine Canape

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove skin and bones from the sardines.

  2. Hard boil the eggs, then mince the yolks.

  3. Cut bread into ½ inch thick slices and fry until golden brown in deep fat.

Make and serve

  1. Mix the minced yolks, sardines, butter, and a dash of paprika using a potato masher.

  2. Drain the fried bread and spread with the sardine mixture.

  3. Garnish with olives.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Sardines
Provide the main savoury flavour and body of the spread.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and a firm, crumbly texture to the spread.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, spreadable texture and rich mouthfeel.
Fried bread
Provides a crisp, golden base that holds the spread.

The step that matters

Frying the bread until golden brown. Frying in hot deep fat browns the bread through the Maillard reaction and dries its surface, so it stays crisp under the spread. Pale or oily bread turns soggy and greasy.

“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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