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Mock Crab Toast

A toast topped with a creamy cheese mixture flavored with anchovy sauce, mustard, vinegar, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mock Crab Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Pound the cheese with anchovy sauce, mustard, vinegar, Nepaul pepper, salt, and egg yolks in a basin. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan over low heat.

  2. Pour the cheese mixture into the pan and stir until creamy.

  3. Serve immediately over hot buttered toast.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Forms the creamy body of the mixture and gives it savoury richness.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and help it thicken to a creamy texture when heated.
Mustard powder
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the cheese.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture to the pan, helping the mixture stay smooth and glossy.

The step that matters

Stir the cheese mixture over low heat until creamy. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can scramble if the heat is too high. Low heat and constant stirring keep the mixture smooth rather than grainy.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Shallotfits less well

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