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Minced Salt Fish

A fried mixture of shredded salt fish and boiled potatoes seasoned with butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Minced Salt Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the fish the day before as you would for fishballs.

  2. Boil enough potatoes to make nearly 1 quart when chopped.

  3. Chop the potatoes into very small, even pieces, but do not mash them.

  4. Mix the chopped potatoes and fish together lightly and evenly.

Cook

  1. In a large frying pan, melt ½ cup of butter over medium heat.

  2. Add ½ teaspoon of salt and a dust of pepper to the melted butter.

  3. Stir in the fish and potato mixture with a knife.

  4. Let it cook until browned on the bottom. Stir again.

  5. Repeat this process several times until a brown crispness is evenly distributed. Do not mash or press the mixture; keep it light and separate.

Serve

  1. Serve hot on a side dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salt fish
Provides the main savoury flavour and salty character of the dish.
Potatoes
Add bulk and softness, and their starch helps the mixture brown in the pan.
Butter
Conducts heat into the mixture and adds richness and browning.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture loose and do not press it. Pressing squeezes out moisture and packs the pieces together, so they steam and turn dense instead of forming separate, crisp browned bits.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, pepper. 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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