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Mock Fish Croquettes

A fried potato and cracker mixture shaped into croquettes, flavored with cayenne, mace, and onion, served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mock Fish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Slice the potatoes and boil until tender but not soft.

  2. Chop the onion and crackers finely, then mix with the hot potatoes.

  3. Season the mixture with cayenne pepper, mace, salt, and pepper.

Make the binder

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and mix in the flour until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the hot milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the potato mixture and heat thoroughly.

  4. Remove from heat and mix in the beaten egg; let cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into cylinders, dip in egg, and roll in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling oil until golden brown and serve with Hollandaise or tartar sauce.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Bulk the filling and give it a soft, starchy body that holds the croquette together.
Butter
Enriches the base and carries the flour, adding richness and flavour.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth sauce that binds the potato mixture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and a mild, creamy flavour.
Egg
Binds the cooled mixture so it holds its shape, and helps the coating stick.
Crackers
Add body and absorb moisture so the filling firms up for shaping.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. Cooling firms the starches and sauce so the mixture can be formed into cylinders. Shaping while hot leads to a soft, sticky mass that falls apart in the hot oil.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, pepper, butter, flour, milk, egg. 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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