Name: Anchovy Cake
Ingredients: 4 ounces flour; 2 ounces butter; a little salt; a little water; 4 anchovies; vinegar; sweet oil

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Anchovy Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

Knead the flour with the butter, salt, and water until smooth.
Roll the dough thin.

Prepare the anchovies

Clean the anchovies.
Soak the anchovies in vinegar for 5 minutes.
Cut the anchovies into small pieces.
Place the pieces in a bowl.
Cover the bowl with sweet oil for 10 minutes.

Assemble and bake

Place a little more than half of the dough in a tart dish.
Raise the edges of the dough with your fingers.
Cover the dough with the anchovy mixture.
Top the dough with the remaining dough cut into square pieces.
Spread some of the anchovy oil on top.
Bake the cake in a warm oven at 400°F (200°C).
Baste occasionally with the oil.
Serve warm.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,652 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Forms the dough's structure, giving the cake its body once baked.
Butter: Adds fat that tenderises the dough and contributes to a rich texture.
Anchovies: Provide the main savoury, salty flavour of the cake.

“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.