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Fish Ckoquettjes

Fish croquettes are fried balls of minced cooked fish mixed with mashed potato, egg and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Ckoquettjes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the fish, mashed potatoes, butter, hot milk, beaten egg, pepper, salt, and parsley thoroughly.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the cooled mixture into balls.

  2. Dip each ball into a beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry in hot lard until golden brown.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled fish
Provides the main flesh and flavour of the croquettes.
Mashed potatoes
Adds bulk and softness, helping the mixture hold together while moist.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the croquettes keep their shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling.
Hot milk
Softens the mixture and keeps the potato filling moist.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, soft mixture is too loose to hold its shape, so it can fall apart or stick to the hands. Cooling lets the starch and egg set slightly, firming the mixture so the balls keep their form in the hot fat.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, butter, milk, egg, 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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