Why it works: Fish and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 637 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Anchovy Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Mix in the flour and fry gently without browning for 1-2 minutes.
Add the water or fish stock and stir until boiling.
Boil for 4-5 minutes.
Stir in the anchovy essence, cayenne, and lemon juice.
If the sauce is too thick, add a little more water.
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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Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together637 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Fish + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,889 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce and carries flavour while the flour cooks.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter.
- Anchovy essence
- Provides the main savoury anchovy flavour of the sauce.
The step that matters
Frying the flour gently without browning. Cooking the butter and flour together as a roux removes raw starch taste and thickens the liquid. Browning changes the colour and flavour of the sauce, so the flour should be cooked gently, just until it smells nutty and loses its raw 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.
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