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Sardines in Spinach

A baked dish of spinach and sardines seasoned with butter, cream, egg yolk, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,400 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Sardines in Spinach

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the spinach

  1. Wash spinach well, drain, and plunge into boiling water with 1 teaspoon salt.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes, then drain and chop finely.

  3. Stir in egg yolk, butter, cream, salt, and pepper, then heat for 2 minutes while stirring continuously.

  4. Remove from heat and spread half of the spinach in a buttered baking dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Split sardines open without separating them, bone them, and spread over the spinach.

  2. Arrange remaining spinach over sardines.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, dot with bits of butter, and bake for 10 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Spinach + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Spinach
Forms the bulk of the dish and, once cooked and chopped, gives a soft, moist base.
Egg yolk
Binds the chopped spinach and cream into a thickened mixture when gently heated.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the spinach a smoother, softer texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the spinach and helps the top brown in the oven.
Sardines
Provide the main protein and a rich, savoury flavour layered between the spinach.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping over the dish during baking.

The step that matters

Heating the egg yolk into the spinach. Stirring the yolk into hot spinach and heating it gently for two minutes thickens the mixture through egg protein setting. If it is heated too fast or without constant stirring, the yolk can scramble, leaving a grainy texture.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, pepper, egg, bread):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Spinachthe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, egg, bread. 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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