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Canapes of Saedines

A sardine spread on toasted bread topped with sardine strips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Canapes of Saedines

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the toast

  1. Cut slices of roll into oval or octagon shapes and toast or fry them in oil or butter until golden.

Make the sardine paste

  1. Remove the bones from the sardines, setting half aside and pounding the other half into a smooth paste with the egg yolks and butter.

  2. Mix in the mustard, pepper, and vinegar until well combined.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the sardine paste over the prepared toast slices.

  2. Top with the reserved sardine strips and serve hot.

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. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. 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

Egg yolks
Bind the paste and add richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the paste spread smoothly.
Sardines
Provide the main savory flavour and the fish base of the paste.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sardine and egg flavour.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the fish and yolks.

The step that matters

Pounding the sardine paste smooth. If the sardines and yolks are not worked until smooth, the paste stays lumpy and hard to spread. Fully breaking down the fish and yolks with the butter gives an even, creamy texture.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Cucumberfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, vinegar. 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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