Skip to main content
Main

Machli Ki Tikki

A fish patty made from white fish, mashed potatoes, and seasonings, coated in flour and shallow‑fried.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Machli Ki Tikki

Time3 minutes on each side

Ingredients

Directions

Smoke the fish

  1. Place fish in a bowl.

  2. Heat coal over a flame until it glows.

  3. Push a beetle nut leaf (paan leaf) into the centre of the bowl of the fish.

  4. Using tongs, put the glowing coal onto the leaf.

  5. Heat 1 tbsp oil. Pour over the coal.

  6. Cover the bowl with foil.

  7. Set aside for ½ hour.

Grill and flake

  1. Arrange fish on a grill pan.

  2. Brush with butter and grill until fish flakes easily.

  3. Flake fish with a fork.

Make and fry the patties

  1. Cook butter, spring onion and cream together for a minute.

  2. Add potatoes, parsley, nutmeg, fish and seasoning.

  3. Chill well.

  4. Mould mixtures into small patties.

  5. Coat with flour.

  6. Shallow fry in hot oil for about 3 minutes on each side.

  7. Drain and serve immediately.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,855 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White fish
Forms the main body of the patties and gives them their flaky texture.
Potatoes
Bind the mixture together and add body so the patties hold their shape.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the mixture, keeping the patties tender.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps the fish brown on the grill.
Spring onions
Add mild sharpness and aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Chill well. Chilling firms the fat and starch in the mixture so the patties hold their shape when shaped and fried; a warm mixture is soft and tends to fall apart.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, butter, pepper, cream, potato, parsley, nutmeg):

  1. Spinachbetter flavor fit
  2. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  3. Chivebetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, pepper, cream, potato, parsley, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes