Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Fish Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Remove skin and bones from the fish and flake it.
Mash the potatoes smoothly and mix with the fish.
Season the mixture with pepper and salt.
Heat the milk and butter in a saucepan until hot.
Add the fish and potatoes to the hot milk and butter.
Beat the egg, then mix half of it into the fish mixture until heated through.
Shape and coat
Spread the mixture on a plate and let it cool.
Add 1 teaspoon each of water and oil to the remaining egg.
Shape the fish mixture into cakes about 1 inch high and 2 inches across.
Brush the cakes with the egg mixture.
Coat the cakes with bread crumbs.
Fry and serve
Fry the cakes in very hot fat until golden brown.
Arrange the fried cakes on a dish.
Garnish the cakes with parsley.
Serve the cakes hot.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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 flavour and the flaky body of the cakes.
- Cold boiled potatoes
- Adds bulk and a soft, cohesive texture that helps the cakes hold together.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture, and the egg brushed on the cakes helps the crumbs brown.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that keeps the mash soft and easy to shape.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and softens the mixture.
- Bread crumbs
- Forms a crisp, golden coating when fried.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before shaping. The hot mash is soft and sticky, and cooling firms it so the cakes keep their shape and do not tear or slump in the hot fat.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, butter, egg, milk, bread):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Tomatofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, butter, egg, milk, bread. 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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