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Croquettes of Fish

A fried patty made from pounded boiled fish mixed with butter, flour, milk, and seasonings, then coated in egg and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Croquettes of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Pound the cold boiled fish well and season with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

Make the binder

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Add the flour and milk.

  3. Stir over heat until thickened and smooth.

  4. Add the pounded fish and Anchovy or Worcestershire sauce to the mixture.

  5. Stir well and transfer to a plate to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, shape the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Dip in beaten egg.

  3. Roll in bread crumbs.

  4. Fry the croquettes in hot oil until golden brown.

  5. Serve with fried 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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 body and flavour of the croquettes.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a stiff mixture that holds the fish together.
Milk
Combines with the flour to form a smooth sauce that binds the fish.
Egg
Coats the shaped croquettes so the bread crumbs adhere and help them set when fried.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust through browning in hot oil.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture fully before shaping. A warm, loose mixture is too soft to hold its shape and can break apart during dipping and frying. Cooling lets the starch-thickened binder firm up so the croquettes keep their form.

“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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