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Anchovy Cheese

A cheese and anchovy mixture thickened with flour and eggs, baked into small lumps.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Anchovy Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. In a stewpan, melt the cheese with the butter until soft.

  2. Add the water, salt, and chopped anchovy, and bring to a boil.

  3. Gradually add flour until the mixture forms a thick paste.

  4. Stir in the beaten eggs until well combined.

Bake

  1. Shape the mixture into small lumps and bake in the oven.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Melts into the base, providing rich flavor and body to the paste.
Flour
Thickens the mixture into a paste that holds its shape when formed.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help set it as it bakes.
Anchovy
Adds a salty, savory depth of flavor to the mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the cheese melt smoothly.

The step that matters

Adding the flour gradually. Adding flour all at once can form lumps and an uneven paste. Adding it slowly lets it hydrate evenly, giving a smooth, thick mixture that holds its shape when shaped and baked.

“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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