Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fish Scallop
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the filling
Combine the fish, cream, anchovy sauce, mustard, walnut catsup, pepper, and salt in a saucepan.
Heat the mixture over medium heat until hot, stirring gently without boiling.
Bake and serve
Transfer the mixture to a deep dish, top with bread crumbs and small pieces of butter.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes until browned.
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.
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Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Mustard + walnuttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together849 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together637 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,787 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Forms the main body of the dish and gives it its savoury flavour.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, helping the mixture stay soft and smooth when baked.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven.
- Butter
- Melts over the crumbs, adding fat that promotes browning and flavour.
The step that matters
Heat the mixture without boiling. Cream can curdle or separate if it boils, and gentle heating keeps the fish mixture smooth and creamy before it goes into the oven.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, cream, anchovy, sauce, mustard, pepper, bread):
- Beansfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
- Chickpeafits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, cream, anchovy, sauce, mustard, pepper, 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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