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Codfish Croquettes

Codfish croquettes are fried balls of mashed potatoes, codfish, butter, cream, pepper, egg, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Codfish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in the mashed potatoes.

  2. Add the codfish, pepper, and cream.

  3. Mix thoroughly.

  4. Mould the mixture into round or oval balls.

Coat the croquettes

  1. Roll the balls in the beaten egg.

  2. Roll the balls in the fine bread crumbs.

  3. Lay the croquettes on a frying basket.

Fry and serve

  1. Sink them in deep boiling lard.

  2. Test the heat with a bit of bread.

  3. Fry until the croquettes are a fine golden-brown.

  4. Lift out the basket.

  5. Let the croquettes drain.

  6. Serve the croquettes on a folded napkin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the croquette and give a soft, moist interior.
Codfish
Supplies the main flavour and fish texture inside the croquette.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the potato mixture and improving flavour.
Cream or rich milk
Adds moisture and smoothness so the mixture holds together softly.
Egg
Binds the coating so the fine bread crumbs adhere and brown evenly.
Fine bread-crumbs
Form a crisp golden crust that browns when fried in hot fat.

The step that matters

Test the heat with a bit of bread. If the lard is too cool, croquettes absorb grease and turn soggy; if too hot, the crumb crust browns before the interior heats through. A bread cube sizzling steadily shows the fat is in the right range for even golden-brown frying.

Swap the potato

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

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

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