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Codfish Cakes

A fried cake made from boiled cod, mashed potatoes, eggs or milk, butter, pepper, flour, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Codfish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the soaked cod until cooked, then chop it finely.

  2. Boil and mash an equal quantity of potatoes.

  3. Combine the chopped cod and mashed potatoes.

Shape and fry

  1. Moisten the mixture with beaten eggs or milk, and add a bit of butter and a little pepper.

  2. Form the mixture into small round cakes and coat the outside with flour.

  3. Heat lard in a pan until boiling hot, then fry the cakes until 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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Soaked cod
Provides the main flavour and flaked body of the cakes.
Potatoes
Bind the fish together and give the cakes a soft, tender texture.
Beaten eggs or milk
Moisten the mixture and help bind it so the cakes hold together.
Flour
Coats the outside so the cakes brown evenly in the hot lard.
Lard
Fat for frying that browns the outside of the cakes.

The step that matters

Frying the cakes in hot lard. The lard must be boiling hot before the cakes go in. Hot fat sears the floured outside quickly, forming a crust that browns and holds the shape, while a cool pan lets the cakes soak up grease and fall apart.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Potatothe original

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