Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Fish Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the potatoes and codfish in a pot covered with water until the potatoes are soft.
Drain the water and mash the potatoes and fish together.
Add the butter and egg, and mix well.
Form and fry
Form the mixture into cakes.
Fry the cakes in a skillet until golden brown.
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.
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,978 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Provide the starchy bulk that holds the cakes together and gives a soft, fluffy interior.
- Codfish
- Supplies the main flavor and flaky texture of the cakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and helps the cakes brown in the pan.
- Egg
- Acts as a binder that helps the mixture hold its shape when formed and fried.
The step that matters
Drain and mash while the potatoes are hot. Excess water left in the potatoes makes the mixture loose and hard to shape, and cold potatoes mash less smoothly. Draining well helps the cakes hold together and brown rather than steam in the pan.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg):
- Asparagusfits better
- Chivefits better
- Leekfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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