Why it works: Sauce and anchovy 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 ↓
Sardine Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the toast
Remove the bones and scales from the sardines and pound them to a smooth paste with the butter.
Cut the bread for the croutons about ½ inch thick, remove the crust, and fry until golden brown in butter.
Spread the sardine mixture on the croutons and place them in the oven.
Make the sauce
Combine the remaining ingredients with the boiling water in a saucepan.
Simmer until the flour is cooked.
Serve
Pour the sauce over the croutons and serve hot.
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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Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Sardines
- Provide the main savoury, fishy flavour and a smooth, rich paste spread.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps bind the sardines into a smooth paste, and browns the croutons.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it simmers, giving it body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich sardine and butter flavours.
The step that matters
Simmer until the flour is cooked. Flour must be simmered long enough for its starch to gelatinise and lose its raw, pasty taste. Undercooked flour leaves the sauce tasting floury and dull.
“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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