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Fish Croquettes

Fish croquettes made with fish, celery, parsley, milk, flour, butter, and oysters, served with potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Fish Croquettes

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and sauce

  1. Boil the three-pound rock until done; skin it and remove the bones.

  2. Chop the fish finely with the celery and parsley.

  3. Mix the butter and flour together.

  4. Boil the milk and pour it into the flour and butter, making a rich sauce.

  5. Add the milk, flour, and butter.

Make the mixture

  1. Boil the scalded oysters.

  2. Take the hearts out, cut them into small pieces, and add them to the sauce.

  3. Add the fish to the sauce and stir until it begins to boil.

  4. When done, pour the mixture onto a platter and let it cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes the size of pears or apples.

  2. Roll each croquette in beaten eggs, then in bread crumbs.

  3. Boil the croquettes in a kettle of lard.

  4. Serve the croquettes with French potatoes or fried Saratoga potatoes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

794Calories
31 gProtein
23 gFat
113 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Oyster6 medium (84g)81
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Margaret Brown. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and adds richness and flavour to the croquettes.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that binds the fish mixture together.
Milk
Forms the base of the sauce, giving the mixture a creamy moisture.
Oysters
Add a briny, rich flavour to the fish mixture.

The step that matters

Boil the milk and pour it into the flour and butter, making a rich sauce.. The flour and butter must be cooked smoothly into the hot milk; lumps or scorching prevent a smooth sauce, and the sauce is what binds the croquettes so they hold their shape when fried.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, milk, flour, butter, oyster):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, milk, flour, butter, oyster. 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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