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Dessert

Canapes De Laitance

Canapés made with fish roe, butter, egg, salt, cayenne, and croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Canapes De Laitance

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the roe

  1. Remove the roes from the bloaters and set aside.

Make the filling

  1. Pound the fish flesh in a mortar with the butter, egg, salt, and cayenne until smooth.

  2. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place a small heap of the mixture on each crouton and top with a piece of roe.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 minutes and serve hot.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Roe + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together243 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Roe + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Bloaters with soft roes
Provide the main flavour and the soft roe that tops each canapé.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smooth, spreadable texture.
Egg
Binds the pounded fish into a smooth mixture that holds its shape.

The step that matters

Pounding the fish until smooth. If the fish flesh is not pounded fully, the filling stays lumpy and does not spread evenly. Passing it through a sieve removes remaining fibres and gives a fine, uniform texture.

“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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