Name: Woodcock Toast
Ingredients: 2 cooked fowls' livers (goose, turkey, or duck preferred); 1 teaspoon anchovy sauce; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 ounce fresh butter; 1 raw egg yolk; spiced pepper to taste; 4 slices of bread, lightly fried; 1 cup savory custard

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce 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 ↓

Woodcock Toast

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

2 cooked fowls' livers (goose, turkey, or duck preferred)
1 teaspoon anchovy sauce
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 ounce fresh butter
1 raw egg yolk
spiced pepper to taste
4 slices of bread, lightly fried
1 cup savory custard

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 liver paste

Pound the livers to a paste and mix with anchovy sauce, salt, butter, egg yolk, and spiced pepper.
Pass the mixture through a sieve and set aside on a clean plate.

Prepare the bread and custard

Fry the bread slices until golden and keep them warm in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
Heat the savory custard in a bain-marie.

Assemble and serve

Spread the liver paste over the warm bread and cover with the heated custard before serving.

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.

Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,330 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Liver + anchovytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together199 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).