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Fish Oakbs

A fried patty made from mashed potatoes and cold boiled fish, seasoned with milk, butter, egg, pepper, onions, thyme, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Fish Oakbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix together the mashed potatoes and cold boiled fish.

  2. Add a little milk, butter, and the egg if using.

  3. Season with pepper, onions, chopped thyme, and coarse sea salt if needed.

Shape and fry

  1. Sprinkle a little flour over the mixture.

  2. Form the mixture into small, thick cakes.

  3. Fry the cakes in a pan until they are light brown on both sides.

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. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft body that holds the cakes together.
Cold boiled fish
Supplies the main flavour and flakes that give the cakes their texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold their shape when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the cakes brown in the pan.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the potato mixture soft and easy to shape.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes until light brown on both sides. Frying over steady heat browns the surface through Maillard reactions while the cakes warm through. Cakes that are too hot on the outside can stay cold inside, and cakes that are shaped loosely may break apart while turning.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, fish, milk, butter, egg, pepper, thyme. 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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