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Herring Roe Croctes

A croquette made with herring roe, anchovy paste, buttered toast, lemon, parsley, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Herring Roe Croctes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the toast

  1. Cut the toast into round or oval-shaped pieces and butter them liberally.

  2. Spread a light layer of anchovy paste on the toast.

Cook the roes

  1. Melt about 2 tablespoons of butter in a sauté pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the roes and gently toss until lightly browned.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the roes on the prepared toast, sprinkle with lemon juice and cayenne pepper.

  2. Garnish with lemon slices and crispy fried parsley, 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Roe + anchovytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Fresh soft roes
Provide the rich, delicate main filling and gain savory flavor and light browning when tossed in butter.
Anchovy paste
Adds salty, savory depth that complements the roe and seasons the toast.
Butter
Carries heat evenly for browning the roes and adds richness to the toast.
Lemons
Add bright acidity that cuts the richness of the roe and butter.

The step that matters

Toss the roes gently until lightly browned. Roe is delicate and can break apart or turn tough and dry if overcooked or stirred roughly. Gentle tossing over medium heat browns the surface while keeping the interior soft and creamy.

“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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