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Croquettes of Fish

A fried fish patty coated in breadcrumbs, made with cold fish, egg, milk, flour, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Croquettes of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove bones from the cold fish and mince it finely.

  2. Add seasoning, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of milk, and 1 teaspoon of flour to the fish and mix well.

Coat and fry

  1. Brush the mixture with egg, then roll it in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes in hot lard until they are 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. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Cold fish
Forms the main body of the croquettes.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and gives a glossy coating for the crumbs to stick to.
Flour
Absorbs moisture and helps the mixture hold its shape while frying.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the filling soft rather than dry.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the croquettes in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb excess fat and turn greasy before the crust sets. Hot fat seals the outside quickly, keeping the inside moist and the crumb coating crisp.

“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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