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Anchovy Aigrettes

Anchovy Aigrettes are small anchovy fillets coated in white sauce, Parmesan, and spices, then fried until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Aigrettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the anchovies, remove the bones, and divide them into small fillets.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the anchovy fillets with the white sauce and cheese, then add anchovy essence and cayenne to taste.

  2. Drop small teaspoonfuls of the mixture into the batter, ensuring they are completely coated.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the coated mixture in hot fat until crisp and lightly browned, then drain well.

  2. Arrange in a pyramid shape, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and cayenne pepper, and serve immediately.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Parmesan cheese + anchovytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together165 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Provide the main savoury, salty flavour of the fritters.
Thick white sauce
Binds the anchovy fillets and cheese into a mixture that holds together.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury depth and helps browning on the surface.
Frying batter
Forms a crisp coating that seals in the mixture while frying.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisp. Hot fat seals the coating quickly, so the inside heats through while the outside browns.

“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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