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Fish Cutlets

Fish cutlets made with boiled fish, milk, butter, flour, and seasonings, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Fish Cutlets

Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a separate bowl, rub together the butter and flour.

  3. Stir the butter and flour mixture into the boiling milk and cook until a thick paste forms.

  4. Add the egg yolk, parsley, and onion juice; mix well.

  5. Incorporate the cold boiled fish and season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  6. Allow the mixture to cool, then form it into cutlets or croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each cutlet in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in very hot lard until golden brown, then drain on brown paper.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with Cream Sauce.

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.

  1. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Mixed with butter and milk to form a thick paste that binds the mixture.
Egg yolk
Enriches the paste and helps bind the fish mixture so the cutlets hold their shape.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the milk-flour paste.
Cold boiled fish
Forms the main body of the cutlets and supplies the central flavour.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in very hot lard until golden brown. Very hot fat seals the coating quickly so it browns and crisps before the soft fish mixture absorbs grease and falls apart or turns soggy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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