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Anchovy Toast
1147. Bone and skin six or eight anchovies; pound them to a mass with an ounce of fine butter till the colour is equal, and then spread it on toasts or rusks.
Another Way. Cut thin slices of bread into any form, and fry them in clarified butter; wash three anchovies split, pound them in a mortar with some fresh butter, rub them through a hair-sieve, and spread it on the toast when cold; then quarter and wash some anchovies, and lay them on the toast. Garnish with parsley or pickles.
A Victorian savoury course in two versions: a plain pounded anchovy butter on toast, and a dressier fried-bread canapé topped with whole fillets. Both are quick, and both hinge on the salt.
- Anchovies then and nowThe book assumes whole salt-cured anchovies, packed in barrels and needing boning, skinning and washing. Tinned fillets in oil are already boned and far less salty, so drain them and skip the washing; if you use salt-packed whole fish, rinse well and soak briefly before pounding.
- ProportionsAn ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons, which with six to eight salt-cured anchovies gives a very forceful paste. With modern oil-packed fillets, start at 6 fillets to 4 tablespoons softened butter and taste before adding more.
- Pound until the colour is equalThis is the real instruction. The paste should be uniformly fawn-pink with no streaks of white butter and no visible fish, or the seasoning lands in patches. A mortar gives the best texture; a small food processor works if the butter is soft.
- The hair-sieveRubbing the paste through a fine sieve removes stray bone and skin and makes it smooth enough to spread thinly. A drum sieve or a fine mesh strainer with the back of a spoon does the same job; with tinned fillets it is optional.
- Spread it when coldIn the second version the fried bread must cool before the butter goes on, otherwise the paste melts and soaks in. Cool the croûtes on a rack so the undersides stay crisp.
- Clarified butterUsed because whole butter burns before the bread colours. Clarified butter or ghee will take the heat; the bread should be a shade of pale gold, not brown, and drained on paper.
- RusksA rusk here is bread dried hard in a slow oven rather than a sweet teatime biscuit. Any dry, crisp toast serves the same purpose.
- Yield and servingThe quantities suggest enough paste for a handful of small toasts. Serve as a savoury at the end of dinner, as the period intended, or with drinks. Salt fish and warm butter do not keep well once spread, so assemble shortly before serving; the paste itself keeps covered in the refrigerator for a few days.