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Fish Cakes

A fried patty made from shredded cold fish and mashed potatoes, seasoned with salt and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix shredded cold fish and mashed potatoes in a bowl.

  2. Add salt and the beaten egg, and mix well.

Shape and fry

  1. Mold the mixture into small flat cakes.

  2. Fry the cakes in butter until browned.

  3. Alternatively, shape into balls and fry in hot lard or oil.

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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  3. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 recipes

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

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.
Mashed potatoes
Binds the fish and adds softness and moisture to the cakes.
Egg
Binds the mixture together so the cakes hold their shape.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in butter until browned. Browning develops flavour and a crisp surface through the Maillard reaction. Frying over too low a heat leaves the cakes pale, greasy and soft inside, while too high a heat can scorch the outside before the centre is hot.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, butter. 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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