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Broiled Sardines with Ham

Broiled sardines coated with ham and Parmesan, served on buttered toast and garnished with cayenne pepper and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Broiled Sardines with Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the sardines by removing the gills.

  2. Dip the sardines in oiled butter.

  3. Roll the sardines in a mixture of chopped ham and grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the sardines on slices of buttered toast.

  2. Dust with a little cayenne pepper.

  3. Heat in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until hot.

  4. Garnish with parsley and serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Sardines
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky when heated through.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on the surface, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
Cooked ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour and a firmer, meaty texture to the coating.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the coating stick while promoting gentle browning.

The step that matters

Heat in the oven until hot. Sardines are delicate and overcook quickly, becoming dry and rubbery. Heating only until hot keeps the fish moist while the cheese browns.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, parmesan cheese, pepper):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Basilfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, parmesan cheese, pepper. 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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