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Codfish Croquettes

A fried croquette made with mashed potatoes, salt codfish, butter, cream, pepper, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Codfish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Pour cold water over the fish and bring to a boil, then drain the water.

Make the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in the hot potatoes.

  2. Add the fish, cream, and pepper; beat until smooth.

  3. Form the mixture into balls.

Fry

  1. Drop the balls into hot lard and fry until golden.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt codfish
Provides the main savory flavor and the flaky body of the croquettes.
Mashed potatoes
Form the soft bulk that holds the mixture together into shapes.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the potatoes, softening the mixture.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the mixture smooth and tender.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the croquettes hold their shape while frying.

The step that matters

Soaking the salt codfish. Salt cod is very salty and must be soaked in cold water and brought to a boil to remove excess salt before it is mixed in. Skipping or shortening this step leaves the croquettes too salty.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, 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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