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Beetroot Savoury a LA Chapman

A savory beetroot dish with anchovies, capers, gherkin, chives, and fried kippered haddock and ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Beetroot and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 231 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Beetroot Savoury a LA Chapman

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beetroot and anchovies

  1. Boil the beetroot until tender.

  2. Slice the boiled beetroot into penny-thick pieces.

  3. Sprinkle the beetroot slices with cayenne pepper.

  4. Wash, scrape and shred the anchovies.

  5. Place a layer of shredded anchovies on each beetroot slice.

Make the dressing and topping

  1. Chop the capers, gherkin, and chives or onion.

  2. Mix the chopped vegetables with oil and vinegar.

  3. Drizzle the mixture over the anchovy layer on each beetroot slice.

  4. Top each slice with a piece of hard-boiled egg and sprinkle with Searcy salt.

Fry the haddock and ham

  1. Prepare beignet batter as per the recipe.

  2. Dip pieces of kippered haddock in the batter.

  3. Fry the battered haddock in hot lard for 10-15 minutes until golden.

  4. Mix chopped ham into the beignet batter.

  5. Roll the mixture into coconut-sized pieces.

  6. Fry the pieces in hot lard for 10-15 minutes until expanded.

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. Beetroot + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together231 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Capers + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Beetroot + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together172 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Pepper + caperstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beetroot
Forms the base of each slice and provides earthy sweetness and moist, tender texture.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury depth that contrasts with the sweet beetroot.
Hard-boiled egg
Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture to the topping.
Kippered haddock
Provides smoky, savoury flavour and a firm texture inside the batter.
Lard
Fat for frying that gives the battered pieces a golden, crisp surface.
Ham
Adds savoury, meaty flavour and chew to the batter mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the battered haddock and ham pieces in hot lard. The lard must be hot enough to crisp the batter quickly; if it is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy before it sets and browns.

Swap the beetroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, capers, chive, vinegar, egg, haddock, ham):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Welsh onionfits better
  4. Beetrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, capers, chive, vinegar, egg, haddock, ham. 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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