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Anchovy Canapes
6 anchovies 2 hard boiled eggs 4 tablespoons butter 1/4 teaspoon salt Few grains cayenne 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice 6 croutes of bread Wash and bone the anchovies, pound them to a paste with the egg yolks, butter and seasonings; fry the bread, spread with the above paste, and sprinkle over them the whites of eggs chopped very fine.
A straightforward anchovy butter on fried bread. The only real difficulty is that the original assumes salt-packed anchovies, which need handling the modern tinned fillet does not.
- Anchovies"Wash and bone" points to whole salt-cured anchovies, which are rinsed and split to remove the spine. Oil-packed fillets in a tin are already boned; drain them and skip the washing, and cut the added salt to a pinch or leave it out entirely.
- CroutesA croute here is simply a slice of fried bread. The recipe does not specify size or shape; rounds or fingers a few inches across, crust trimmed, are the usual treatment. Six croutes yields six canapes.
- Frying the breadFry in clarified butter or oil over moderate heat until dry and crisp on both sides, then drain on paper. Whole butter can brown and catch before the bread dries through.
- The pasteButter at cool room temperature, not melted. A mortar gives the smoothest result, but a small food processor works; if the butter warms and separates, chill briefly and beat it back together.
- Yolks and whitesOnly the yolks go into the paste. Reserve the whites, chop them fine or press them through a sieve, and scatter over the spread croutes as a garnish.
- Cayenne and lemon"Few grains" of cayenne is roughly an eighth of a teaspoon or less. The half teaspoon of lemon juice is there to cut the fat and salt; taste before adding more, since anchovy strength varies widely between brands.
- TimingAssemble no more than half an hour before serving and hold at room temperature. Refrigerating hardens the butter and dulls the anchovy.
Anchovy on fried or toasted bread was a fixture of English and American entertaining from the mid-nineteenth century onward, arriving at the table as a savoury, a small salted course served late in the meal, or as a canape before it. Salt-cured anchovies kept for long periods in the barrel or jar and were one of the few reliably intense flavourings available to a household without refrigeration, which is why anchovy paste, anchovy essence and anchovy butter appear so often in books of this era. Gold Medal Flour, a Washburn-Crosby brand from Minneapolis, published cook books as advertising, and the recipes range well outside the world of flour.