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Codfish Cakes

Codfish cakes are fried or baked patties made from mashed potatoes, codfish, eggs, milk, butter, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Codfish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Boil and mash

  1. Place the pared potatoes in a kettle.

  2. Add the codfish.

  3. Cover with cold water.

  4. Boil until the potatoes are cooked.

  5. Drain the mixture through a colander.

  6. Mash the potatoes finely.

  7. Add the butter, pepper, and milk to the mashed potatoes. Beat well.

  8. Incorporate the beaten eggs into the mixture.

Fry and bake

  1. Heat fat in a pan for frying.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot fat. Fry until brown.

  3. Grease a tin.

  4. Place the codfish mixture in the tin. Bake until brown.

  5. Turn out onto a platter.

  6. Serve with drawn butter.

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

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the main flavour and the flaky texture of the cakes.
Potatoes
Bind the mixture and give the cakes a soft, starchy body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the cakes hold their shape when fried.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the mashed potato mixture soft and smooth.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the cakes brown.

The step that matters

Drain the mixture through a colander. Excess cooking water left in the potatoes and fish makes the mixture loose and wet, so the cakes may not hold their shape when fried. Draining thoroughly before mashing keeps the mixture firm enough to form into cakes.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

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