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Fish Croquettes

A fried fish paste formed into balls, served with a fish gravy.

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

Why it works: Butter and cream 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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Mix the flour, butter, and cream in a saucepan over medium heat until combined.

  2. Remove the mixture from heat.

  3. Stir in the egg yolk and seasoning.

  4. Add the cold dressed fish and mix until the mixture forms a paste.

  5. Let the paste cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the paste into balls.

  2. Dip the balls in egg.

  3. Coat the balls with breadcrumbs.

  4. Fry the coated balls in hot fat until golden brown.

Make the gravy

  1. Boil the fish bones, fins, and tails with an onion and an anchovy.

  2. Season the gravy to taste.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Flour
Helps thicken the butter and cream into a binding base for the paste.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the paste, giving it a smoother texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the paste hold together.
Egg yolk
Binds the paste and adds richness to hold the croquettes together.
Cold dressed fish
Forms the main body of the croquettes and gives them their flavor.

The step that matters

Let the paste cool. A cooled, firm paste holds its shape when rolled and fried. If it is still warm and soft, the balls may lose their shape or split in the hot fat.

Swap the onion

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

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

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