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 ↓
To Fillet Anchovies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the anchovies
Drain the anchovies from the pickle.
Remove the heads and fins from the anchovies.
Scrape off the skin completely.
Place the fillets on a clean dish.
Use a sharp knife to raise the flesh on either side of the backbone.
Cut from the tail to the shoulders.
Fry each fillet in butter.
Use the fillets as directed for toasts or other purposes.
Make the cheese toasts
Cut slices of bread about ½ inch thick and 2½ inches square.
Butter the tops of the bread slices thickly.
Spread a little mustard on the bread slices.
Cover the bread slices with a deep layer of grated cheese and minced ham seasoned with cayenne.
Fry the bread slices in good butter without turning them in the pan.
Place the bread slices in a Dutch oven for 3 minutes to melt the cheese.
Serve very hot.
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 + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Anchovies
- Provide a salty, savoury flavour base once the fillets are prepared and fried.
- Butter
- Fries the fillets and bread, adding richness and golden browning.
- Grated cheese
- Melts over the bread to form a rich, savoury topping.
- Finely minced ham
- Adds savoury, salty meatiness to the cheese topping.
- Mustard
- Adds a sharp, tangy bite that cuts through the rich cheese and butter.
- Slices of bread
- Forms the crisp base that holds the butter, cheese and ham topping.
The step that matters
Fry the bread slices without turning them in the pan. Leaving the slices undisturbed lets one side brown and crisp in the butter, while the bread keeps its shape and the topping stays in place. Turning too early can tear the bread or spill the cheese mixture.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cheese, ham, pepper, bread):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Tomatofits about as well
- Potatofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cheese, ham, pepper, bread. 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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