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Finnan-haddie Croquettes

A fish croquette made from soaked Finnan haddie, onions, peppers, flour, and milk, baked and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Finnan-haddie Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the Finnan haddie in equal parts milk and water for 1 hour.

  2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  3. Bake the fish for 30 minutes.

  4. Drain the fish.

  5. Separate the fish into flakes.

Make the mixture

  1. In a skillet, cook the onion and both peppers in butter for 5 minutes.

  2. Add flour and milk.

  3. Season with salt, paprika, and pepper.

  4. Stir in the fish flakes.

  5. Let the mixture cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Dip the croquettes in breadcrumbs.

  3. Dip the croquettes in egg.

  4. Dip the croquettes in breadcrumbs again.

  5. Fry the croquettes in deep fat 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Finnan haddie
Provides the main flaked fish body and smoky flavour of the croquettes.
Butter
Fat that cooks the vegetables and adds richness to the mixture.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a binding paste that holds the fish together.
Milk
Moistens the flour mixture so it becomes a creamy, shapeable base.
Eggs (in the method)
Coats the croquettes so breadcrumbs adhere and form a crisp outer layer.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool. A warm, loose mixture is too soft to shape. Chilling firms the starch-thickened binder so the croquettes hold their form during frying.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, 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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