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Anchovy Toast

A toasted bread topped with a quick egg and anchovy mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce 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 ↓

Anchovy Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bread into fingers and keep warm.

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  3. Add the milk, anchovy sauce, and cayenne to the eggs and mix well.

Make the custard

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Pour in the egg mixture and stir until it thickens.

Assemble and serve

  1. Quickly pour the mixture over the toast.

  2. Sprinkle with the prepared yolk and white of the eggs in alternating bars.

  3. Serve immediately on a hot dish.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set and thicken the savoury custard that coats the toast.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the egg mixture into a smooth custard.
Anchovy sauce
Provides a salty, savoury flavour that carries the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the custard.
Bread
Forms the base that holds the warm custard topping.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture until it thickens. Eggs set when heated, so stirring over low heat keeps the custard smooth and thick. Too much heat or too long cooking can curdle the eggs into grainy lumps, and the mixture must be poured over the toast quickly before it cools and sets.

“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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