Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Savoury Toasts
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the toast
Fry the bread slices in butter until golden brown and keep warm.
Make the anchovy sauce
In a bowl, mix the anchovy pulp with the egg yolks.
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan over a bain-marie.
Stir the anchovy mixture into the melted butter and heat until thickened.
Serve
Pour the hot mixture over the toasted bread and serve immediately.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,260 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
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Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,330 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Forms the crisp, golden base that holds the topping.
- Butter
- Adds richness and promotes browning when frying the bread.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the mixture as they gently set with heat, giving a creamy texture.
- Anchovy
- Provides a salty, savory flavour that defines the topping.
The step that matters
Heating the anchovy and egg yolk mixture until thickened. Egg yolk proteins set gently around moderate heat, which is why a bain-marie is used. Heating too fast or too hot can scramble the yolks and leave the mixture grainy rather than smooth.
“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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