Skip to main content
Main

Sardine Toast

A toasted bread topped with a sardine paste made from sardines, butter, anchovy sauce, flour, milk, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Sardine Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the toast

  1. Cut 6 small, thin rounds of bread.

  2. Toast and butter the bread or fry it in a little hot dripping until golden on both sides.

Make the sardine paste

  1. Skin and bone the sardines, then mix them with the butter, cayenne, and half of the anchovy sauce to form a paste.

  2. In a small saucepan, combine the flour, water, and milk, stirring over heat until thick.

  3. Add the sardine paste to the thick mixture and stir until hot.

Serve

  1. Spread the sardine mixture on the hot toast and sprinkle with the remaining anchovy sauce.

  2. Serve immediately while hot.

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

Sardines
Provide the main fish flavour and the savoury body of the spread.
Flour
Thickens the flour, water and milk mixture into a smooth, stable base.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky texture to the sardine paste.
Anchovy sauce
Adds salty, savoury depth that rounds out the fish flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring the thickening mixture. Flour must be stirred over heat while the liquid comes up to temperature so it thickens smoothly. Stopping early or leaving it unstirred can leave lumps or a raw, pasty taste.

“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

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes