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Anchovy Sandwiches

A sandwich made with anchovies, butter, olives, eggs, mustard, and cress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Anchovy Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the anchovy filling

  1. Pound the anchovies in a mortar with the butter and minced olives.

  2. Spread the mixture on thin slices of bread.

  3. Cover with another buttered slice and cut into oblongs.

  4. Alternatively, bone the anchovies and cut into small fillets.

Make the egg sandwich

  1. Pound the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs with cayenne and vinegar.

  2. Spread the egg mixture on buttered bread, sprinkle with minced whites, and layer with filleted anchovies.

  3. Top with chopped mustard and cress, then cover with another slice of buttered bread.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 is the main taste of the sandwich.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps bind the pounded filling to the bread.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Form a smooth, creamy spread that gives the sandwich its body.
Olives
Add a briny, savoury note that complements the anchovies.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich egg and butter mixture.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, olive, bread, egg, pepper, vinegar. 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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