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Sardine Canapes

Sardine paste spread on toasted bread, topped with sardine strips, then heated.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sardine Canapes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the bones from the sardines and set half aside.

  2. Pound the remaining sardines with the egg yolks and butter until smooth.

  3. Mix in the mustard, pepper, and vinegar until well combined.

  4. Cut slices of bread into oval or octagon shapes and toast or fry until golden.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the sardine paste over the toasted bread slices.

  2. Top with the reserved sardine strips and place in the oven until hot.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind with butter to form a smooth, creamy paste.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, making the paste smooth and spreadable.
Sardines
Provide the main flavour and the savoury body of the paste.
Vinegar
Adds a little acidity that brightens the rich sardine flavour.

The step that matters

Pound the sardines with egg yolks and butter until smooth. Breaking the sardines down fully with the yolks and butter creates an even, spreadable emulsion. If the paste is left coarse, it will be lumpy and may not hold together on the toast.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

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