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Rhode Island Fish Cakes

A fried mixture of boiled salt cod, mashed potatoes, egg, butter, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rhode Island Fish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil the salt cod fish and potatoes together until tender.

  2. Mash the fish and potatoes together.

  3. Beat in the egg, butter, and cream until well combined.

Fry

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot bacon fat and fry until golden.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 savoury flavour and the flaked body of the cakes.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, so the mixture holds together and stays tender when mashed.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture so the cakes hold their shape while frying.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a softer texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture soft and smooth.

The step that matters

Frying in hot bacon fat. The fat must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the cakes absorb grease, turn heavy, and may fall apart before a golden crust forms.

Swap the potato

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

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

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