Skip to main content
Main

Fish Fritters

A fried batter of shredded salt cod, milk, eggs, flour, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fish Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codfish

  1. Finely shred the salt codfish.

  2. Place it in a saucepan with 2 cups of cold water.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Drain the water.

  5. Add another cup of cold water.

  6. Simmer the fish slowly for about 15 minutes.

  7. Strain the fish.

  8. Let it cool.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the milk, eggs, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Add enough flour to create a thick batter.

  3. Stir in the cooled fish mixture.

Fry and drain

  1. Heat oil in a frying pan.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil.

  3. Fry until golden brown on both sides.

  4. Remove and drain on paper towels.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Salt codfish
Provides the savory fish flavor and bulk that defines the fritter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the fritters as they fry.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it holds its shape when dropped into oil.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the batter with tenderness.
Baking powder
Releases gas during frying, lifting the fritters to a light, puffy texture.

The step that matters

Simmering the codfish. Salt codfish is very salty and must be simmered and drained before mixing so the batter is not overly salty. Cooling it first keeps the eggs and baking powder from reacting or setting prematurely when stirred in.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes