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Curried Toasts with Anchoyies

A toasted bread topped with curry paste and anchovy fillets, baked until golden.

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 ↓

Curried Toasts with Anchoyies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Fry the bread slices in butter or clarified marrow until lightly golden.

  2. Spread a thin layer of curry paste on top of each slice.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the slices in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 3-4 minutes.

  2. Top each slice with 2-3 fillets of anchovies.

  3. Return to the oven for an additional 2 minutes.

  4. Add cayenne pepper for extra heat if desired.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Provides a crisp, sturdy base that holds the toppings.
Butter or clarified marrow
Fat that browns the bread and adds rich flavour.
Curry paste
Adds spiced flavour and aroma to the toast.
Anchovies
Contribute salty, savoury depth to the toast.

The step that matters

Return to the oven for an additional 2 minutes. Anchovies and curry paste are only warmed briefly, so overheating can dry the bread and scorch the paste. Watch the toasts closely so the fish softens and the paste becomes fragrant without burning.

“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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