Name: Fish Croquettes
Ingredients: cold, boiled fish; bread crumbs; cooked ham (optional); pepper; coarse sea salt; egg; bread crumbs or powdered crackers; lard for frying

Why it works: Bread and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Fish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Remove bones from the cold, boiled fish and chop it finely.
Mix the chopped fish with bread crumbs and, if desired, a little cooked ham.
Season the mixture with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Roll the mixture into balls.
Dip each ball in egg, then coat with bread crumbs or powdered crackers.
Fry the croquettes in hot lard until golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Fish + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together125 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

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