Why it works: Lemon and watercress match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 579 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Sardine Croustades
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the croustades
Cut stale bread into slices ½ inch thick and stamp out 8 rounds or ovals about 2 inches in diameter.
Use a smaller cutter to make an inner circle ¼ inch from the outer edge of each croustade.
Fry the bread shapes in hot clarified butter until lightly browned.
Remove the inner ring with a small sharp knife and discard the moist crumb.
Place the croustades in a 350°F (175°C) oven to crisp and dry, then cool.
Make the filling and serve
Skin and bone the sardines, then cut them into fine ½ inch strips.
In a small saucepan, combine the sardines with the sauce and add anchovy essence if using.
Season with salt and cayenne, add lemon juice, and heat until hot.
Stir in the cheese and fill the croustades with the sardine mixture.
Garnish with watercress seasoned with oil and vinegar, and serve.
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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Lemon + watercresstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together579 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,163 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Pepper + watercresstop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together983 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sardines
- Provide the main flavour and the savoury filling of the dish.
- Stale bread
- Forms the crisp shell that holds the filling.
- White sauce or tomato sauce
- Binds the sardines into a moist, spreadable filling.
- Parmesan cheese
- Adds savoury, salty flavour and browns slightly when stirred into the hot filling.
- Clarified butter
- Fries the bread shells to a golden, rich, crisp surface.
The step that matters
Frying and drying the croustades. Frying in hot clarified butter until only lightly browned, then drying in the oven, sets a firm, crisp shell. Underfrying leaves it soft and soggy under the moist filling, while overbrowning makes it bitter.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, parmesan cheese, pepper, bread, butter, watercress):
- Lemonthe original
- Avocadofits about as well
- Plumfits less well
- Limefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, parmesan cheese, pepper, bread, butter, watercress. 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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