Why it works: Butter and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Anchovy Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the flavourings
Wash, bone, and pound the anchovies in a mortar.
Scald the parsley, chop it, and rub it through a sieve.
Make and shape the butter
Pound all the ingredients together and mix well.
Shape the butter into pats immediately.
Garnish with parsley before serving.
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.
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Forms the rich base that carries the anchovy and parsley flavours and sets firm when chilled.
- Anchovies
- Dissolve into the butter to add savoury depth and a salty, umami character.
- Parsley
- Adds fresh, green aroma and a mild herbal bitterness that balances the rich fat.
The step that matters
Shape the butter into pats immediately. Butter softens quickly at room temperature and becomes greasy and hard to shape. Shaping while it is still cool keeps the pats firm and their edges clean.
“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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