Name: Eclaires d’Anchois
Ingredients: 12 anchovies; ½ pound puff pastry; 1 egg yolk; 2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese; cayenne pepper; parsley

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

Remove gills from the anchovies and wipe them clean.
Roll out the puff pastry thinly and enclose each anchovy in the pastry.
Place the wrapped anchovies on a baking sheet.

Top and bake

Brush the tops with the beaten egg yolk.
Mark each lightly with a knife and sprinkle with Parmesan and a pinch of cayenne.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

Serve

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Egg + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,368 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,765 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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, savory fish flavor that is the centerpiece of each bite.
Puff pastry: Forms a flaky, layered wrapper that puffs and browns in the oven.
Egg yolk: Brushed on top to promote browning and a glossy golden finish.
Parmesan cheese: Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the top brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes. Puff pastry relies on hot oven heat to turn its butter into steam, which lifts the layers. Too low a temperature gives a dense, greasy result, while overbaking can dry out the pastry and scorch the cheese.