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Canapes of Sardines

Canapes of sardines are toasted bread topped with sardine paste and sardine strips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Canapes of Sardines

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Cut slices of bread or rolls into oval or octagon shapes.

  2. Toast them slightly or fry in oil or butter until golden.

Make the sardine paste

  1. Remove bones from sardines and set half aside.

  2. Pound the other half of the sardines with egg yolks and butter until smooth.

  3. Mix in mustard, pepper, and vinegar.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the sardine paste over the toasted bread.

  2. Top with the reserved sardine strips.

  3. Serve very 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sardines
Provide the main savoury flavour and the paste base, with reserved strips for topping.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Bind with the fish and butter to give the paste a smooth, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the paste turn smooth and spreadable.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that cuts the richness of the fish and butter.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich paste.

The step that matters

Toast or fry the bread until golden. The bread must be firm and lightly browned so it stays crisp under the moist paste; under-toasted bread softens quickly and turns soggy.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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