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Fish Cakes

Fish cakes made from boiled codfish, mashed potatoes, pepper, salt, milk, and eggs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the codfish until the bones can be easily removed, then pick the fish finely.

  2. Boil the potatoes, drain, and let them steam for 5 minutes without a cover.

Mix the cakes

  1. Mash the potatoes and mix in the codfish, pepper, and salt.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool.

  3. Just before using, add ½ pint of milk and 3 eggs for every 5 lbs of prepared fish cakes.

Fry

  1. Heat about 1½ inches of grease in a shallow pan.

  2. Drop about 2 ounces of the mixture into the grease and fry 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the cakes and give a soft, starchy body when mashed.
Codfish
Provides the main flavour and the fish texture that the cakes are built around.
Eggs
Bind the mixture, setting as they heat so the cakes hold their shape in the pan.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and eggs just before using. Eggs set when heated and bind the mixture, while milk adds moisture. Adding them just before frying keeps the binding effective and stops the mixture from becoming loose or slack.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, milk, egg. 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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