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 potatoes and codfish in water until potatoes are soft.
Drain the water and mash the potatoes and fish together.
Add butter and egg, and mix well.
Cook
Form the mixture into cakes.
Fry the cakes in a pan 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 base that binds the mixture and gives the cakes body.
- Codfish
- Supplies the flaked fish that gives the cakes their main flavor and texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.
- Egg
- Helps bind the mixture so the cakes hold their shape.
The step that matters
Mashing and mixing the potato and fish. Mashing while the potatoes are still hot and mixing in the egg evenly helps the cakes bind together. Overworking or uneven mixing can make them gluey or cause them to fall apart when frying.
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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