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Dessert

Canapés

Canapés are small bread slices topped with various savory spreads and garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Capsicum and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Canapés

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut stale bread into thin slices, about the size of a 5-shilling piece.

  2. Butter each slice of bread.

Top and serve

  1. Top with your choice of lax, caviare, sardines, fish-roe, green butter, or strips of green capsicum or cucumber.

  2. Garnish with tastefully cut tongue or ham, grated ham, or powdered hard-boiled egg yolk.

  3. Serve small and neatly arranged before dinner.

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. Capsicum + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Provides a dry, firm base that holds the toppings without going soggy.
Butter
Adds fat and a moisture barrier so the toppings sit well and the bread stays flavourful.

Swap the capsicum

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Capsicumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, fish, roe, cucumber, ham, egg. 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.

More canapés recipes

Sardine 12Cheese 10Anchovy 7Caviar 4Crab 4Prune and Fig 4 See all 5 →

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