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Poached Eggs, on Anchovy-crusts

Poached eggs served on buttered bread crusted with anchovy butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Poached Eggs, on Anchovy-crusts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Poach the fresh eggs, keeping them round.

  2. Cut several slices of household bread into oval shapes, about ½ inch thick.

Cook and assemble

  1. Fry the bread slices in butter until nicely colored.

  2. Spread a thick layer of anchovy butter on one side of each slice.

  3. Arrange the slices on a dish and place a poached egg on each one.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh eggs
Provide the main poached centre, whose set white and runny yolk form the topping.
Household bread
Forms a crisp, golden base that supports the egg and absorbs the anchovy butter.
Butter
Fat that browns the bread surface through frying, adding color and rich flavor.
Anchovy butter
Adds salty, savory depth and a fatty layer that flavors the bread.

The step that matters

Poach the fresh eggs, keeping them round.. Eggs lose their shape when the whites spread in water that is boiling too hard or when the eggs are not fresh. Gentle simmering and fresh eggs help the white set tightly around the yolk, keeping the round form needed for the crust.

“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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