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Fish Croquettes

Fish croquettes are small, breaded fish cakes made with fish, celery, parsley, milk, flour, butter, oysters, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Fish Croquettes

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil the fish until done, then skin and remove the bones.

  2. Chop the fish finely and mix with chopped celery and parsley.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, mix butter and flour together.

  2. Boil the milk.

  3. Pour the boiled milk into the butter and flour mixture to make a rich sauce.

  4. Boil the oysters.

  5. Remove the hearts from the oysters.

  6. Chop the oysters.

  7. Add the chopped oysters to the sauce.

  8. Stir in the fish mixture.

  9. Cook until the mixture begins to boil.

  10. Pour the mixture onto a platter.

  11. Let the mixture cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the cooled mixture into croquettes resembling pears or apples.

  2. Roll the croquettes in beaten eggs.

  3. Roll the croquettes in bread crumbs.

  4. Fry the croquettes in a kettle of hot lard 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Fish + oystertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rock fish
Forms the bulk of the croquettes, giving them their main flavor and body.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the milk into a rich sauce that binds the mixture.
Milk
Liquid that becomes the sauce, adding moisture and a creamy texture.
Beaten eggs
Coat the croquettes so the bread crumbs adhere and set into a crisp shell.
Oysters
Add a briny, delicate flavor to the sauce-bound fish mixture.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, loose mixture will not hold its shape. Cooling lets the starch-thickened sauce firm up so the croquettes keep their form through egg, crumb and frying.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, parsley, milk, flour, butter, oyster, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, parsley, milk, flour, butter, oyster, 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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