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Anchovy Rounds
Make some toast, cut it in rounds, butter it when cold. Curl an anchovy round a stewed olive, and put it on the toast. Make a little border of yolk of egg boiled and chopped.
A savoury in the Edwardian mould: three cold components assembled on toast, with nothing cooked at the last minute. The whole thing stands or falls on the toast being properly dry and properly cold before the butter goes on.
- Butter it when coldThis is the hinge. Toast buttered hot absorbs the fat and slumps under the topping within minutes; cooled toast stays crisp and the butter sits as a seal against the oily anchovy. Toast well ahead, cool on a rack rather than a plate so steam escapes, then cut and butter.
- "Stewed olive"Ambiguous in the original. It may mean an olive stoned and gently simmered, or simply a preserved olive from the jar as sold at the time; it may also be a slip for "stuffed". A large stoned green olive, drained and patted dry, gives what the recipe is after.
- The anchoviesAnchovies were sold both salt-packed and tinned or bottled at the time; modern oil-packed ones are milder and much softer. Whichever you use, drain and blot them, then wrap one round the olive with the tail tucked under so it holds without a cocktail stick. If working from salt-packed fish, rinse and soak briefly or the round will be inedibly salty.
- Chopped yolk borderHard-boil the eggs about 9-10 minutes, cool in cold water, then push the yolks through a coarse sieve rather than chopping with a knife: the crumb is finer and rings the toast more evenly. Whites are unused here, though they are often chopped alongside as a second ring.
- RoundsA 1 1/2 to 2 inch cutter gives a small, one- or two-bite piece. From a standard large sliced loaf you will get one or two rounds per slice depending on the cutter, so allow accordingly.
- Yield and servingCount two or three rounds a head as a savoury or with drinks. Assemble no more than half an hour before serving; the egg dries out and the toast softens beyond that.
The Belgian Cook Book was compiled in 1915 from recipes gathered among Belgian refugees who had fled to Britain after the German invasion. Small anchovy toasts like this belong to the savoury course, the salty, sharp mouthful served after the sweet at English dinners of the period and equally at home as a supper dish; anchovy, hard-boiled egg and olive make a combination that is cheap, keepable and requires no cooking beyond toast and a boiled egg. That the book carries such a dish at all is a reminder that it is a Belgian book written for British kitchens, where the household stores would have run to a tin of anchovies and a jar of olives more readily than to anything fresh.