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Deviled Sardines

Deviled sardines are baked sardine pieces mixed with breadcrumbs, mustard, lemon juice, and topped with sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,816 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Deviled Sardines

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Open the sardine cans and drain the oil.

  2. Remove the soft bones from each fish and place them in a bowl.

  3. Break the fish into small pieces.

  4. Add the bread crumbs, salt, paprika, mustard, and lemon juice to the bowl.

  5. Mix everything well and transfer to greased shells.

Top and bake

  1. Sift fine cracker crumbs over each shell.

  2. Pour 2 teaspoons of sweet cream over each shell.

  3. Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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. Mustard + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Bread + mustardtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

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

  5. Mustard + creamtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,935 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Sardines
Provide the main protein and rich flavor that form the body of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the fish into a spreadable, soft filling.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness so the topping softens and browns gently in the oven.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, oily flavor of the sardines.

The step that matters

Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven. Sardines are already cooked, so the bake is mainly for browning the crumb topping and warming the filling. Watch the color, since the cream and fine crumbs can scorch before the filling is heated through.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, mustard, cream. 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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