Name: Scotch Woodcock
Ingredients: 4 slices of bread, ½ inch thick; butter, for spreading; anchovy paste; thick melted butter made with milk

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scotch Woodcock

Ingredients

4 slices of bread, ½ inch thick
butter, for spreading
anchovy paste
thick melted butter made with milk

Directions

Prepare

Toast the bread slices and butter them well.
Remove the crusts from the bread.
Spread anchovy paste over each slice.
Stack the slices on top of each other.

Finish and serve

Pour thick melted butter made with milk over the stacked bread.
Serve very 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned 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

Bread: Provides the base structure that holds the anchovy and butter layers together.
Anchovy paste: Adds a salty, savoury flavour that contrasts with the rich butter.
Thick melted butter made with milk: Adds richness and moisture, soaking into the toast and carrying flavour.

“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.