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Bombay Toast

A spicy toast topped with a mixture of eggs, anchovy essence, capers, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and capers work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 473 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Bombay Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the topping

  1. Place the butter on a hot-water plate and let it melt.

  2. Stir in the eggs, cayenne pepper, essence of anchovy, and chopped capers.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the mixture on small rounds of buttered toast.

  2. Serve on a napkin.

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 + caperstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set gently with gentle heat to bind the mixture into a creamy, spreadable topping.
Butter
Melts to add richness and carry flavor, and keeps the topping moist.
Essence of anchovy
Adds a concentrated savory, salty depth that gives the topping its character.
Chopped capers
Add sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the eggs and butter.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs into the melted butter. The eggs must be warmed gently over the hot-water plate. Too much heat makes egg proteins tighten and scramble into lumps instead of a smooth, spreadable mixture.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, pepper, anchovy):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersthe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, pepper, anchovy. 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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