Name: Potted Anchovies
Ingredients: anchovies; fresh butter (double the weight of anchovies); mace (to taste); cayenne (to taste); finely grated nutmeg (small quantity)

Why it works: Mace and nutmeg 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

Prepare the anchovies

Clean the anchovies and remove the flesh from the bones.
Pound the flesh into a smooth paste using a mortar.
Press the paste through a fine sieve with a wooden spoon.

Make the pâté

Weigh the anchovies and pound them again with double their weight in fresh butter.
Add a high seasoning of mace, cayenne, and a small amount of nutmeg.
Let the mixture sit in a cool place for 3-4 hours to harden.
If using, pour lukewarm butter over the mixture before storing.

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.

Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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 main savoury, salty flavour and the body of the paste.
Fresh butter: Adds richness and a smooth, spreadable texture that firms as it cools.

The step that matters

Pounding the anchovies into the butter. Working the flesh into a smooth paste before adding butter keeps the texture even. Fibres left unbroken or uneven mixing leave a gritty pâté, and butter added to cold, unpounded flesh will not blend evenly.