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Anchovy Toast

Anchovy Toast is a toasted bread topped with a buttery anchovy and shallot mixture seasoned with parsley and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Anchovy Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and bone the anchovies, then chop them coarsely.

Make the anchovy mixture

  1. In a small saucepan, heat the butter and fry the shallot until lightly browned.

  2. Add the anchovies, parsley, and yolk of egg to the pan, seasoning with cayenne.

  3. Stir the mixture over low heat until it thickens.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread butter on the toast.

  2. Pour the anchovy mixture on top.

  3. 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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 flavor that defines the topping.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the shallot flavor while frying.
Yolk of egg
Thickens the mixture as it heats, giving it a creamy, spreadable body.
Shallot
Adds mild aromatic sweetness when fried until lightly browned.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture over low heat until it thickens. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat; too much heat can scramble it into lumps, so low heat and steady stirring keep the mixture smooth.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, parsley, pepper):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, parsley, pepper. 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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