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Bengal Canapes

A small appetizer of toasted bread topped with ham and cream mixture, chutney, Parmesan, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Bengal Canapes

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the topping and bread

  1. Pound the chopped ham in a mortar and mix it with the thick cream.

  2. Melt the butter in a flat pan and fry the bread rounds in it until pale golden brown.

  3. Drain the fried bread on paper for 2-3 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread a thick layer of the ham mixture on each round.

  2. Add a thin layer of chutney on each round.

  3. Cover each round with grated Parmesan cheese.

  4. Place the toast on a baking sheet.

  5. Bake in a brisk oven until the cheese is slightly browned.

  6. Dust each canape with cayenne pepper.

Serve

  1. Arrange the canapes on a hot dish garnished with parsley.

  2. Serve.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped ham
Provides the savory, meaty base of the spread.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and softens the ham so it spreads easily.
Bread rounds
Form the crisp, sturdy base that holds the topping.
Butter
Fats the pan for frying, helping the bread brown evenly and richly.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden finish.

The step that matters

Fry the bread until pale golden brown. Frying in butter browns the bread through Maillard reactions, creating flavor and a crisp surface. Too little heat leaves it soft and soggy under the topping, while too much heat burns the butter and makes the bread bitter.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, cream, bread, butter, parmesan cheese, pepper):

  1. Celeryfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, cream, bread, butter, 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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