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Codfish Cakes

Codfish cakes made from codfish, sliced potatoes, butter, pepper, egg, cream, coated in flour, fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and potatoes

  1. Soak the codfish overnight in water.

  2. Drain the codfish and add the sliced potatoes.

  3. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil, then drain and add fresh boiling water.

  4. Cook until the potatoes are tender, then drain and mash well.

Shape and fry

  1. Mix in a bit of butter, pepper, the beaten egg, and enough cream to form a thick mixture.

  2. Shape into round cakes about 1½ inches thick.

  3. Coat each cake in flour.

  4. Fry in boiling lard until they are a delicate brown, frying gently.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Codfish
Provides the main savoury flavour and the fish body of the cakes.
Potatoes
Bulk and starch that mash into a soft body that holds the cakes together.
Egg
Binds the mixture, and sets when cooked to hold the cake's shape.
Cream
Moistens the mash so it stays tender rather than dry and crumbly.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother texture in the mash.
Flour
Coating that helps the outside brown and form a light crust when fried.

The step that matters

Frying gently. Lard that is too hot browns the outside before the centre heats through. Gentle frying lets the cake cook evenly and turn an even golden brown without burning.

Swap the potato

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

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

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