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Mock Fish Chops

A vegetarian fish substitute made from mashed potatoes, carrots, and spices, formed into chops and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 and cook them in boiling milk until tender but not soft.

Make the mixture

  1. Add butter, cooked carrots, green pepper, parsley, grated onion, mace, cayenne, and salt to the potatoes.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the chopped tomatoes with the whole egg and egg yolk.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the potato mixture while on the stove, then remove from heat.

  4. Add cracker crumbs and Madeira or sherry, then let cool.

Fry and serve

  1. Form the mixture into chops, roll in egg, then in cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry the chops in boiling oil until golden brown.

  3. 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
Form the bulk of the chops and give them a soft, tender body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the coating set when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the potato mixture.
Milk
Cooks the potatoes gently and keeps the mixture moist and creamy.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when the chops are fried.

The step that matters

Cook the potatoes until tender but not soft. Overcooked potatoes turn watery and mushy, so the mixture cannot hold its shape when formed into chops and fried.

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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