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Mock Fish Chops

A fried potato-based dish shaped like fish chops, flavored with herbs, spices, and eggs, served with cucumber salad.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mock Fish Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Soak the chopped potatoes in cold water to prevent browning.

  2. Drain the potatoes.

  3. Add the potatoes to the boiling milk.

  4. Cook until tender but not soft.

Make the mixture

  1. Add the butter, French carrots, green pepper, parsley, grated onion, mace, cayenne, and salt. Mix well.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the tomatoes, whole egg, and egg yolk.

  3. Stir the mixture into the potato mixture while on the stove.

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Fold in the cracker crumbs and Madeira or sherry.

  6. Let the mixture cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Form into chops.

  2. Roll the chops in egg and cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry in boiling oil until golden brown.

  4. Serve with cucumber salad.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starch that thickens the mixture and holds the chops together when cooked.
Egg
Binds the mixture and forms a coating that helps the chops brown when fried.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the mixture's flavour and texture.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and form a crisp outer crust when fried.
Milk
Cooks the potatoes gently and adds creaminess to the mixture.
Madeira or sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that deepen the flavour of the mixture.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before forming chops. A warm, loose mixture is hard to shape and may fall apart. Cooling lets the starch set so the chops hold their form in the hot oil.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, butter, carrot, pepper, parsley, onion):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, butter, carrot, pepper, parsley, onion. 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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