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Dessert

Anchovy Eclairs

A pastry filled with anchovies, topped with beaten egg, Parmesan, and cayenne, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,322 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Anchovy Eclairs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Scrape, wipe, and bone the anchovies.

  2. Roll out the short pastry or remnants of puff pastry very thin.

  3. Enclose each anchovy neatly in the paste.

  4. Place them on a baking sheet.

Top and bake

  1. Brush the tops with beaten egg.

  2. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese and a pinch of cayenne pepper over each.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

  4. 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.

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

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

  2. Egg + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Anchovies
Provide the salty, savoury filling that flavours the whole pastry.
Short paste or puff paste
Forms the thin, flaky casing that encloses each anchovy and crisps in the oven.
Beaten egg
Coats the tops so the pastry browns and takes on a glossy finish.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the topping brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Roll the pastry very thin. Thin pastry bakes quickly and crisply around the anchovy. Thick pastry stays doughy and underbaked in the short baking time.

“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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