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Anchovy Butter
Yolks of 4 hard-cooked eggs 4 boned anchovies 1/2 cup butter Paprika Rub the yolks of the hard-cooked eggs to a smooth paste with the anchovies and butter and add paprika to taste.
A compound butter for sandwiches, built on hard-cooked yolks rather than raw fish paste. It takes five minutes and keeps for several days.
- Butter temperatureThe half cup of butter (1 stick, 4 oz) must be genuinely soft at room temperature, not melted. Melted butter will separate from the yolk paste and refuse to emulsify back together.
- "Boned anchovies""Boned anchovies" most likely means salt-packed whole anchovies with the backbone removed, a form then commonly sold. Oil-packed tinned fillets can stand in — count two fillets per whole boned fish, so about eight; if you use salt-packed, rinse and pat dry first or the butter will be aggressively salty.
- No added saltThe recipe gives none. Between the anchovies and (if you use it) salted butter, taste before adding any.
- Getting it smoothPush the yolks through a fine sieve before combining. Rubbed in a bowl with a spoon they stay granular, and the original's "smooth paste" is hard to reach any other way. A small food processor does the whole job in thirty seconds.
- PaprikaRead this as the mild sweet paprika of the period rather than anything hot; a teaspoon colors the butter a pale coral and adds little heat. Smoked paprika will dominate the anchovy.
- Yield and useAbout three quarters of a cup, enough for a dozen thin sandwiches or twenty small canapes. Spread on white or rye with cucumber, watercress, or nothing at all. Chill an hour before spreading so it firms up.
- StorageRefrigerate covered up to four days, or roll in parchment and freeze. It is also good melted over grilled fish or steak, which is the older French use for it.