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Croquettes of Fish

Croquettes of Fish are small fish balls coated in cracker crumbs and fried, served with a creamy fish bone broth sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,432 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Croquettes of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the croquettes

  1. Remove the bones from the fish and mince it with seasoning.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg with flour and milk.

  3. Combine the minced fish with the egg mixture and form into balls.

  4. Brush the balls with egg and coat with cracker crumbs.

Fry and make the sauce

  1. Fry the croquettes in hot oil until golden brown.

  2. To make the sauce, boil the fish bones, tail, and onion.

  3. Strain the broth and thicken it with flour to a creamy consistency.

  4. Season the sauce to taste.

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. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the croquettes, providing the filling that is shaped into balls.
Egg
Binds the minced fish together and gives a coating that helps crumbs stick.
Flour
Thickens the binding mixture and the sauce, giving a creamy consistency.
Cracker crumbs
Forms a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.
Onion
Adds aroma and savour to the sauce made from the fish bones.

The step that matters

Frying the croquettes in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it browns, and the delicate fish inside may fall apart. Hot oil quickly sets the crumb crust, sealing the filling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, flour, milk):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, flour, milk. 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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