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Fish Cakes

Fish cakes made with flaked cod, mashed potatoes, butter, eggs, milk, and pepper, fried in beef drippings or lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the flaked cod and hot mashed potatoes.

  2. Add butter, beaten eggs, milk, and pepper; mix until smooth.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into round cakes.

  2. Heat drippings or lard in a pan and fry the cakes until golden brown.

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

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

  2. Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  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. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Cod
Provides the main flavor and flaky texture of the cakes.
Mashed potatoes
Bind the fish together and add body and softness to the cakes.
Eggs
Help hold the cakes together and set during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mixture.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture becomes smooth and easy to shape.

The step that matters

Frying the cakes until golden brown. The cakes must be fried in enough hot fat to brown the surface and cook the egg through. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs steady heat and a dry surface.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, milk, pepper, beef. 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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