Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Fish Cutlet
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Whisk in flour and butter, cooking until smooth.
Shape and fry
Finely mince the cold boiled fish and add it along with Cayenne pepper, lemon juice, salt, and parsley to the mixture.
Once cool, mold the mixture into small cutlets.
Dip each cutlet in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.
Fry the cutlets in deep, boiling fat until golden brown.
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.
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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold boiled fish
- Forms the main body of the cutlets and gives them their flavour.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth base that holds the fish together.
- Milk
- Makes a creamy base that binds the fish mixture and keeps it moist.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the flour cook smoothly into the base.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.
The step that matters
Fry the cutlets in deep, boiling fat until golden brown.. The mixture is soft, so the egg and bread crumb coating must be fully set before frying. Hot fat quickly sets the coating and browns it, helping the cutlets hold their shape and avoid absorbing excess oil.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, lemon, milk, flour, butter):
- Parsleythe original
- Cardamomfits about as well
- Thymefits less well
- Marjoramfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, lemon, milk, flour, 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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