Skip to main content
Main

Eggs and Anchovy

Poached eggs served on toast buttered with anchovy butter, topped with cayenne pepper and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Eggs and Anchovy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Butter the toast with Anchovy Butter.

  2. Poach the eggs.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place one poached egg on each piece of toast.

  2. Sprinkle a little cayenne pepper and grated Parmesan cheese on top.

  3. Serve immediately.

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 + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Anchovy + parmesan cheesetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together165 recipes

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

  3. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the main body of the dish, setting into soft, tender pieces when poached.
Toast
Gives a crisp, sturdy base that holds the poached egg.
Anchovy butter
Adds savoury, salty richness to the toast and carries the anchovy flavour.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and browning when sprinkled on top.

The step that matters

Poach the eggs. Eggs cook quickly and can overcook into rubbery whites or a firm yolk if left too long. Timing them to serve immediately keeps the yolk runny and the white tender.

“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.

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesCheese OmeletteCheese Omelette31 recipes