Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Anchovy Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Make the paste
In a marble mortar, rub the butter and egg yolks together until smooth.
Pound the anchovies with the butter and egg mixture until very smooth.
Finish and serve
Transfer the mixture into small pots.
Melt a little plain butter and pour it over the top.
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.
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 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
- Fresh butter
- Provides fat and richness, giving the paste a smooth, spreadable body.
- Hard-boiled egg yolks
- Add richness and body, helping bind the paste into a smooth, creamy texture.
- Anchovies
- Supply the salty, savoury flavour that defines the paste.
The step that matters
Pounding the anchovies until very smooth. Breaking the anchovies down fully into the butter and yolk mixture gives an even, spreadable texture. Fibres left in large pieces make the paste gritty and uneven in 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.
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