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Cold Anchovy Savoury

A cold dish of bread topped with seasoned whipped cream and anchovies, garnished with parsley.

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 ↓

Cold Anchovy Savoury

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut brown bread into pieces the size of a five shilling coin.

Assemble

  1. Season whipped cream with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and anchovy essence if desired.

  2. Top each piece of bread with a little seasoned whipped cream.

  3. Place two boned anchovies crosswise on top of the cream.

  4. Garnish with chopped 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. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  3. Anchovy + parsleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Cream + anchovytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together798 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brown bread
Provides a sturdy base that holds the cream and anchovies.
Stiffly whipped cream
Adds a soft, rich layer that cushions the salty anchovies.
Boned anchovies
Contribute a salty, savory flavour that is the dish's main taste.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cream, pepper, anchovy. 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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