Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Anchovy Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the anchovies
Remove oil from anchovies, split them open, remove spines, and pass through a fine sieve.
Make the anchovy sauce
In a bowl, mix the anchovy pulp with the yolks of 2 raw eggs.
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan over low heat, stir in the anchovy mixture, and let it thicken.
Fry and serve
Fry the bread slices in butter until golden, then drain and keep warm.
Spread the hot anchovy mixture over the toasts and serve immediately.
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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Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,260 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
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Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,330 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,697 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
- Anchovies
- Provide the salty, savory flavour that defines the dish.
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify and thicken the anchovy mixture into a spreadable sauce when gently heated.
- Bread
- Forms a crisp, golden base that holds the warm topping.
- Butter
- Browns the bread when frying and enriches the sauce with fat and flavour.
The step that matters
Thickening the anchovy mixture over low heat. Egg yolks scramble if they get too hot, which turns the sauce grainy. Gentle, low heat lets the yolks thicken it smoothly.
“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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