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Fish Croquettes with Three Eggs

A fried fish patty made with cooked fish, cream, butter, onion, eggs, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓

Fish Croquettes with Three Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Remove bones from the fish and chop it finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the fish, cream, melted butter, chopped onion, eggs, salt, and pepper.

  3. Roll the mixture into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball into beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry in a mixture of leaf lard and butter until golden brown.

  3. Alternatively, dip in cracker dust, then egg, and cracker dust again before frying in hot lard.

Serve

  1. Serve with cream gravy.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the fish mixture and form a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Cooked fresh fish
Forms the main body of the croquette, giving its flavor and substance.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the fish mixture.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender interior.
Cracker crumbs (in the method)
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb oil and become greasy, and the crumb coating may not crisp. Hot fat sets the crust quickly, keeping the inside moist.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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