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Canapes of Sardines

Canapes of sardines are toasted bread topped with a sardine paste and sliced sardines.

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 ↓

Canapes of Sardines

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the yolks from the hard-boiled eggs and place them in a bowl.

  2. Add butter, mustard, pepper, and vinegar to the yolks and mix until smooth.

  3. Cut slices of roll into oval or octagon shapes and toast them lightly or fry in oil or butter until golden.

Assemble and serve

  1. Remove the bones from the sardines, then pound half of them into a smooth paste with the egg mixture.

  2. Spread the sardine paste over the prepared toast slices.

  3. Top with the remaining sardines, cut into small strips.

  4. Place in a Dutch oven over the fire and serve very 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

Hard-boiled eggs
Yolks provide the rich, creamy body that binds the paste together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the yolk mixture a smooth, spreadable texture.
Mustard
Adds sharp flavor that cuts through the richness of the fish and eggs.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the paste.
Sardines
Provide the main savory fish flavor and the paste's substance.

The step that matters

Pounding the sardine paste. The paste must be worked until smooth so it spreads evenly. Fish mixed with egg yolk and fat can turn grainy or greasy if not blended thoroughly, and removing the bones beforehand keeps the texture pleasant.

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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