Skip to main content
Bread

Anchovy Toast

A toast topped with a fried anchovy, shallot, parsley, and egg yolk mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 topping

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

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

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

Serve

  1. Pour the mixture over well-buttered toast 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. 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 main salty, savory flavor that defines the topping.
Egg yolk
Thickens the mixture and gives it a rich, smooth body as it heats.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the shallot flavor while it fries.
Shallot
Adds a mild, sweet aromatic base after frying until lightly browned.

The step that matters

Stirring the mixture over low heat until it thickens. Egg yolk thickens when gently heated, but too much heat can scramble it into lumps. Low heat and constant stirring keep the topping 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.

More anchovy toast recipes

with Poached Eggs 5with Egg Yolk Cream 3 See all 93 →

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes