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Fish-roe Sandwich

A sandwich made with fish roe, butter, lemon juice, and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish-roe Sandwich

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roe

  1. Beat the fish roe in a mortar until smooth.

  2. Pound the smoked cod roe with a little oiled butter into a paste.

Assemble the sandwich

  1. Toast the fish roe lightly before the fire.

  2. Spread the paste evenly on slices of bread.

  3. Flavour with a few drops of lemon juice.

  4. Top with another slice of buttered bread if desired.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

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

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish roe
Provides the main savoury flavour and a smooth, spreadable paste texture.
Oiled butter
Adds fat and moisture so the roe binds into a smooth, spreadable paste.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, salty flavour of the roe.
Bread
Gives a crisp, absorbent base that holds the paste.

The step that matters

Pound the roe with oiled butter into a paste. The roe must be worked smooth with fat so it spreads evenly without lumps or a greasy separation. Pounding breaks the roe into a fine emulsion that holds together on the bread.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, bread):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, bread. 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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