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Anchovy Relish

A spreadable paste made from anchovies, clarified beef suet, and milk, served on toast or biscuits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Anchovy Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the anchovies

  1. Soak the anchovies in the milk, then split and remove the bones.

  2. Dry the anchovies thoroughly.

Make the paste

  1. In a mortar, combine the anchovies and clarified suet, and pound to a paste.

Serve

  1. Spread the paste on dry toast or biscuits.

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. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  2. Milk + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Beef + biscuittop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together197 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Provide the salty, savoury flavour that defines the paste.
Clarified beef suet
Adds fat that binds the anchovies into a smooth, spreadable paste.
Milk
Soaking in milk mellows the anchovies' sharp, salty flavour.

The step that matters

Dry the anchovies thoroughly. Any leftover moisture thins the paste and dilutes the fat, so it becomes loose rather than smooth and spreadable. Patting the fillets fully dry before pounding keeps the texture firm and concentrated.

“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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