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Fish Cakes

Fish cakes made with shredded codfish, potatoes, eggs, bread crumbs, butter, salt, and pepper, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil and mash the potatoes.

Make and cook the cakes

  1. Mix in the shredded codfish, beaten eggs, and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Form the mixture into cakes and coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the cakes in butter until golden brown on both sides.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together434 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

Potatoes
Mashed potatoes bind the codfish and give the cakes a soft, moist body.
Eggs
Beaten eggs bind the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while frying.
Shredded codfish
Provides the main fish flavor and savory base of the cakes.
Bread crumbs
Coat the outside so the cakes brown and form a crisp crust when fried.
Butter
Fat for frying that browns the outside of the cakes and adds richness.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in butter until golden brown on both sides. Butter browns quickly because its milk solids darken at moderate heat, so the cakes can scorch before the centers warm through. Medium heat and turning once give an even golden crust.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, butter, 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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