Name: West Indies Fish Cakes with Curry Aioli
Ingredients: Fish Cakes; 2 cups boiled cleaned and flaked salt cod fish (or may use 2 cups leftover cooked flaked light firm fish); 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 3 scallions, chopped; 5 cloves garlic, minced; 2 large eggs; 1 teaspoon curry powder (Jamaican style preferred); 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 1 cup water; oil (for shallow frying; as needed); lemon slices, for garnish (optional); Optional Curry Aioli; 1 cup mayonnaise; 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 2 teaspoons curry powder (Jamaican style preferred); 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice; 6 cloves garlic, minced (or more)

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + lemontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,893 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,368 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt cod fish: Provides the main body and savory flavor of the fish cakes.
All-purpose flour: Gives the batter structure so the cakes hold together when fried.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help the cakes set firm as they cook.
Baking powder: Releases gas during frying, making the cakes puffy and light inside.
Mayonnaise: Adds fat and creaminess to the aioli, giving it a smooth, rich texture.

The step that matters

Do not overcrowd the pan. Adding too much batter lowers the oil temperature, so the cakes absorb more oil, brown unevenly, and cook through poorly instead of crisping.

“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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Cake	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0

West Indies Fish Cakes with Curry Aioli