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Croquettes of Fish

Fish croquettes are fried balls of minced fish coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Croquettes of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

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

Shape and coat

  1. Beat the egg with flour and milk in a bowl.

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

  3. Brush the outside of each ball with egg.

  4. Coat the balls with bread and cracker crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the croquettes in hot pork fat 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.

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 + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fish + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together668 recipes

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

  4. Milk + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

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

  5. Bread + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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 and provides their flavour.
Egg
Binds the minced fish into shapes and helps the crumb coating stick.
Flour
Thickens the egg mixture so it binds well and coats the balls evenly.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Pork fat
Conducts heat to fry the croquettes, browning and crisping the crumb coating.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb oil and turn greasy, and the crumb coating may fall off. Hot fat sets the coating quickly, creating a crisp, browned crust while the fish inside cooks through.

“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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