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Dessert

Eclaires d’Anchois

A puff pastry pastry filled with anchovies, topped with egg yolk, Parmesan, cayenne, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Eclaires d’Anchois

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove gills from the anchovies and bone them.

  2. Roll out the puff pastry thinly and enclose each anchovy in the pastry.

  3. Place the wrapped anchovies on a baking sheet.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush with the beaten egg yolk, mark slightly with a knife, and sprinkle with Parmesan and cayenne.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

  3. Serve on a folded napkin, garnished with parsley.

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

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

  2. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Egg + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Parmesan cheese + parsleytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,799 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Provide the salty, savoury flavour that is the core of the dish.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, layered case that puffs and browns around each anchovy.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top to promote browning and a glossy finish.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and helps the top brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Enclosing the anchovies in pastry. The pastry must be rolled thinly and sealed fully around each anchovy. Thick or open pastry bakes unevenly, so the layers may not puff properly and the fish can dry out or leak.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parmesan cheese, pepper):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Basilfits about as well
  3. Dillfits less well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parmesan cheese, pepper. 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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