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Anchovy Sandwiches

A sandwich with anchovies soaked in milk, buttered bread, and cress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Anchovy Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the anchovies

  1. Wash the anchovies thoroughly.

  2. Cut the fish open with a sharp knife and remove the bones.

  3. Soak the anchovies in milk for about 15 minutes.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the anchovies on one slice of buttered bread.

  2. Add a little well-washed cress over the anchovies.

  3. Press the other slice of buttered bread on top and cut into neat squares.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 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 main savoury, salty flavour and the filling of the sandwich.
Milk
Softens the salty bite of the anchovies while they soak.
Bread
Forms the structure that holds the filling together.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture and keeps the bread from soaking up the filling.

The step that matters

Soak the anchovies in milk for about 15 minutes. Soaking draws out some of the excess salt and sharpness from the cured fish, so the filling tastes milder. Soaking too briefly leaves the anchovies overly salty, while soaking too long can make the flesh soft and mushy.

“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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