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Fish Cakes

A fried or baked patty made from shredded cold fish, mashed potatoes, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Shred any remnants of cold fish.

  2. Mash cold boiled potatoes until smooth, adding plenty of milk.

  3. Mix the fish and potatoes together, seasoning with mushroom ketchup or anchovy sauce, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Shape and cook

  1. Form the mixture into neat flat cakes.

  2. Fry the cakes in fat or place pieces of clarified dripping or cold bacon fat on top.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until brown and very hot.

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

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

  2. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold fish
Provides the main body and flavour of the cakes.
Cold boiled potatoes
Binds the fish together and gives the cakes a soft, tender interior.
Milk
Moistens the mashed potato so the mixture stays smooth and easy to shape.
Mushroom ketchup or anchovy sauce
Adds savoury depth and salty, umami flavour to the mixture.
Fat for frying or clarified dripping or cold bacon fat
Conducts heat to the outside of the cakes, promoting browning and a crisp crust.

The step that matters

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until brown and very hot.. The cakes must be heated through until steaming hot in the centre while the surface browns. Underbaking leaves the fish and potato cold, while overbaking dries the cakes out.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, mushroom, 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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