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Devilled Biscuits

A biscuit dish topped with a herring roe paste, seasoned and lightly fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Roe and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 65 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Devilled Biscuits

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the biscuits

  1. Melt ½ ounce of butter in a small sauté pan.

  2. Lay the biscuits in the pan, turning them over on low heat until the butter browns.

  3. Season both sides of the biscuits with grill seasoning.

  4. Place the seasoned biscuits on a hot dish.

  5. Pour the browned butter over the biscuits.

Make the roe paste

  1. For the roe paste, pound the herring roes with 1 ounce of butter, 1 teaspoon of anchovy essence, and a dust of pepper.

  2. Moisten the paste with 2 raw egg yolks and keep it warm.

Finish and serve

  1. Melt 2 ounces of butter in a large sauté pan.

  2. Heat the biscuits in the pan without overlapping.

  3. Pepper the biscuits.

  4. Remove the biscuits from the pan.

  5. Spread the roe paste on top of the biscuits.

  6. Crisp the biscuits briefly in the oven.

  7. Serve hot.

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. Roe + anchovytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Biscuit + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Anchovy + eggtop 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. Roe + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together243 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

Water biscuits
Form a sturdy base that soaks up butter and crisps as it heats.
Butter
Browns for a nutty flavour and adds richness and moisture to the biscuits.
Herring roes
Provide the rich, savory fat and body that makes up the paste.
Raw egg yolks
Bind the roe paste and give it a smooth, creamy texture.
Anchovy essence
Adds a concentrated salty, savory depth to the paste.

The step that matters

Keeping the roe paste warm. Egg yolks set and curdle when overheated, so keep the paste just warm rather than hot. This keeps it smooth and lets the yolks bind it properly.

“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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