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Anchovy Toast

A toasted bread dish coated in a butter, egg yolk, anchovy sauce, and Nepaul pepper mixture, garnished with parsley or watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Anchovy Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Toast the bread slices until nicely browned and trim to desired shape.

Make the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in a hot-water plate.

  2. Add the egg yolks, anchovy sauce, and Nepaul pepper to the melted butter; mix well.

Soak and serve

  1. Dip both sides of the toast in the mixture, allowing it to soak.

  2. Serve hot, piled on a dish, garnished with parsley or watercress.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 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

Butter
Melts to carry the flavours and give the mixture richness and a smooth texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the warm butter mixture and add richness so it clings to the toast.
Anchovy sauce
Adds salty, savoury depth that stands out against the rich butter and yolks.

The step that matters

Dipping the toast. Egg yolks in warm butter can scramble or turn grainy if the mixture is too hot. Keep the butter warm rather than hot so the yolks thicken smoothly and the toast soaks up the mixture evenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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