Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Anchovy Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the anchovy butter
Remove the bones and skin from the anchovies.
Pound the anchovies with the butter until smooth.
Wash and split 3 anchovies. Pound the split anchovies with some fresh butter.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.
Prepare the toast
Cut slices of bread into desired shapes.
Fry the bread slices in clarified butter until golden.
Assemble and garnish
Spread the anchovy butter on the cooled toast.
Spread the anchovy mixture on toast or rusks.
Quarter and wash additional anchovies. Lay the quartered anchovies on top of the toast.
Garnish with parsley or pickles.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Anchovies
- Provide the main salty, savoury flavour that defines the toast.
- Unsalted butter
- Binds the pounded anchovies into a smooth, spreadable paste and adds richness.
- Bread
- Forms the crisp base that carries the spread.
- Clarified butter
- Fries the bread to a golden colour and crisp texture.
The step that matters
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve. Pounding alone leaves fibres and lumps. Forcing the paste through a fine sieve removes them, giving a smooth spread that sits evenly on the toast.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Capersfits about as well
- Sagefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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