Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Anchovy Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash, bone, and pound the anchovies in a mortar.
Scald the parsley, chop it, and rub it through a sieve.
Make and shape the butter
Pound all the ingredients together and mix well.
Shape the butter into pats immediately.
Garnish with parsley before serving.
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.
-
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Provides the rich fat base that carries the anchovy and parsley flavours.
- Anchovies
- Add a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the butter.
- Parsley
- Adds fresh, green herbal aroma and a clean finish to the butter.
The step that matters
Pound all the ingredients together and mix well. Thorough pounding breaks the anchovies and parsley into fine pieces and spreads them evenly through the fat, so every pat tastes the same and no large bits of herb or fish stand out.
“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.
More anchovy butter recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.