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Fish Patties

A baked fish patty made with flaked bream, butter, flour, milk, anchovy sauce, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fish Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Bake the fish in the oven or use cold fish from the larder.

  2. Remove the skin and bones, and flake the fish.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour and milk; season with anchovy sauce, pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

  2. Add the flaked fish to the sauce and mix well.

Shape and bake

  1. Line small patty pans with flaky pastry, place a spoonful of the mixture in the center, cover with a round of pastry, and press the edges together.

  2. Trim into a neat shape, make a small hole in the center with a skewer, and brush with egg or milk.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on fancy paper and garnish each patty with a tiny sprig of parsley.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 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

Bream
Provides the flaked fish that forms the main body of the filling.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and adds richness and flavor to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a sauce that holds the fish together.
Milk
Makes the sauce creamy and adds moisture to the filling.
Flaky pastry
Forms the crisp, layered casing that bakes golden around the filling.

The step that matters

Press the pastry edges together. Sealing the edges keeps the filling from leaking and drying out during baking, so the patties stay moist inside.

“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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