Skip to main content
Main

Bomba Y Toast

A toast topped with a buttered egg mixture flavored with cayenne, anchovy essence, and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Anchovy and capers work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 473 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Bomba Y Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the topping

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over boiling water.

  2. Stir in the eggs, cayenne, essence of anchovy, and chopped capers.

  3. Continue stirring until the eggs begin to set.

Serve

  1. Spread the mixture on the buttered toast rounds.

  2. Serve on a hot-water plate.

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. Anchovy + caperstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + caperstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,088 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when gently heated, thickening the mixture into a soft, spreadable topping.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the mixture stay smooth and glossy as it warms.
Essence of anchovy
Contributes a salty, savoury depth that stands out against the eggs.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny bite that balances the richness of the eggs and butter.

The step that matters

Continue stirring until the eggs begin to set. Over a gentle heat of boiling water, eggs thicken slowly. Stirring keeps them moving so they set evenly and smoothly. If left still or heated too hard, they can scramble into lumps.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, pepper, anchovy):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersthe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, pepper, anchovy. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes