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Olives a L'espagnole

Stuffed olives served on croutons with tartare sauce, anchovy, lobster, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Olives a L'espagnole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the croutons

  1. Fry the bread slices in butter until golden, then drain them.

Fill the olives

  1. Remove the pits from the olives using a sharp tube cutter.

  2. Fill each olive with tartare sauce.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place one filled olive in the center of each crouton.

  2. Curl an anchovy fillet around each olive.

  3. Garnish with chopped lobster coral and parsley sprigs.

  4. Serve on small hors-d'oeuvres dishes.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Anchovy + lobstertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Sauce + lobstertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Provides a crisp, golden base that holds the olive and gives a contrasting texture.
Butter
Fries the bread, adding browning and a rich, nutty flavour.
Spanish olives
Supply the salty, briny flavour and the central filling vessel for the dish.
Tartare sauce
Fills the olives, adding moisture, richness and tangy acidity.
Anchovy fillets
Add a salty, savoury flavour that contrasts with the sauce and olive.

The step that matters

Drain the fried bread well. Bread fried in butter holds residual fat and moisture; if it is not drained thoroughly, it stays greasy and soggy under the olive and sauce.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, olive, sauce, anchovy, lobster):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, olive, sauce, anchovy, lobster. 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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