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Potted Anchovies

A preserved anchovy butter made by mixing anchovies with butter and spices, then refrigerated and served in shapes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Potted Anchovies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the anchovy butter

  1. Remove the gills from the anchovies and mix with butter, cayenne, nutmeg, mace, and rose‑pink if using.

  2. Press the mixture into jars or pattypans and refrigerate until firm.

Serve

  1. For an elegant presentation, stamp into shapes and alternate with lobster butter pats.

Make the fish sauce

  1. To make a fish sauce, mix 2–3 ounces of the anchovy butter with 1 teaspoon of flour and a few tablespoons of cold water or pale veal stock.

  2. Stir constantly until the mixture boils.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Mace + rosetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together498 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Nutmeg + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Butter and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Provide the salty, savoury flavour that defines the butter.
Butter
Carries the flavours and sets firm when chilled, giving the butter its body.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the fish sauce as it heats and boils.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until the mixture boils. Flour thickens liquid by swelling its starch granules as they heat. Stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed so it does not clump, and the sauce thickens smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, nutmeg, rose):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, nutmeg, rose. 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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