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Fish Croquettes

A fried ball of minced fish mixed with mashed potatoes, butter, milk, egg, seasoning, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Fish Croquettes

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the minced fish, mashed potatoes, butter, hot milk, beaten egg, pepper, salt, and chopped parsley thoroughly.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Once cool, shape it into balls.

  2. Dip each ball into the beaten egg, then roll in cracker crumbs.

Fry

  1. 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.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled fish
Provides the main body and flavour of the croquettes.
Mashed potatoes
Binds the mixture and keeps the croquettes moist and tender inside.
Egg
Binds the mixture and forms a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Butter
Adds richness and softens the texture of the filling.
Cracker crumbs (in the method)
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, soft mixture is too loose to hold its shape, so the balls can crack or fall apart in the hot lard. Cooling firms the starches and binders so the croquettes keep their form while frying.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, butter, milk, egg, 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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