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Codfish Cakes

A breakfast dish of mashed potatoes mixed with boiled cod, formed into cakes, coated in flour, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Codfish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cakes

  1. Boil the soaked cod until cooked, then chop it finely.

  2. Boil and mash the potatoes, then mix with the chopped cod.

  3. Add the beaten eggs or milk, butter, and pepper to the mixture.

  4. Form the mixture into small, round cakes about ½ inch thick.

  5. Coat the outside of each cake with flour.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the lard or beef drippings until boiling hot.

  2. Fry the cakes gently until they are a delicate brown, turning to cook both sides.

  3. Serve for breakfast.

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 + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

Soaked cod
Provides the main flavour and flakes that form the body of the cakes.
Potatoes
Binds the mixture and gives the cakes a soft, tender interior.
Eggs or milk
Adds moisture and helps hold the mixture together while it sets.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes gently. Frying over high heat browns the flour coating before the centre heats through, leaving the cakes raw inside. Gentle heat lets the interior warm while the surface turns a delicate brown.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, flour, beef. 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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