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Potted Anchovies

A buttery anchovy paste seasoned with mace, cayenne, and nutmeg, set to firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Potted Anchovies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the anchovies

  1. Clean the anchovies and remove the flesh from the bones.

  2. Pound the flesh into a smooth paste using a mortar.

  3. Press the paste through a fine sieve with a wooden spoon.

Make the pâté

  1. Weigh the anchovies and pound them again with double their weight of butter.

  2. Add mace, cayenne, and nutmeg to the mixture.

  3. Let the mixture sit in a cool place for 3-4 hours to firm up.

  4. If desired, pour lukewarm butter over the mixture before storing.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Butter and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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

Anchovies
Provide the main savoury, salty flavour and the fish base of the paste.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, spreadable texture while carrying the flavours.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that complements the fish and butter.
Cayenne
Adds a gentle background heat that sharpens the savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Pounding the anchovies with the butter. The paste must be worked until smooth so the fat and fish blend evenly. Under-pounded pieces leave a grainy, uneven texture, and the butter must be soft enough to incorporate without separating.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, nutmeg. 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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