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Fish Croquettes

Fish croquettes are fried patties made from shredded fish, potato, and a butter‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Fish Croquettes

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan and mix with flour, cooking for a few moments.

  2. Add enough milk to achieve a thick cream consistency.

  3. Stir in parsley, pepper, and salt.

Form the croquettes

  1. Combine the shredded fish and cold potato with the sauce until stiff enough to handle.

  2. Form the mixture into croquettes using your fingers.

  3. Dip each croquette in egg and then in cracker dust.

Fry

  1. Fry 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + potatotop 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. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Milk + potatotop 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

Flour
Mixed with melted butter to form a roux that thickens the milk into a sauce.
Milk
Forms the thick cream sauce that binds the fish and potato together.
Cold fish
Provides the main flavour and body of the croquettes.
Cold potato
Adds bulk and softness, helping the mixture hold together when shaped.
Egg
Coats the croquettes so the cracker dust adheres and browns during frying.
Cracker dust
Forms a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Chilling and shaping the mixture to a stiff consistency. The sauce and fish mixture must be stiff enough to handle; if it is too soft, the croquettes can fall apart in the coating or hot lard. Cold ingredients help the mixture firm up before shaping.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Cinnamonfits less well

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