Name: Fresh Fish Croquettes
Ingredients: 1 pound boiled or fried fish, skin and bones removed, or 1 pound canned salmon, drained; ½ teaspoon salt; a dash of cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 heaped tablespoon flour; ½ cup cream or milk (plus more if needed); 1 egg yolk; bread crumbs for coating

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fresh Fish Croquettes

Ingredients

1 pound boiled or fried fish, skin and bones removed, or 1 pound canned salmon, drained
½ teaspoon salt
a dash of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter
1 heaped tablespoon flour
½ cup cream or milk (plus more if needed)
1 egg yolk
bread crumbs for coating

Directions

Prepare the filling

Mince the fish or salmon finely and combine with salt, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice.
In a pan, melt the butter over medium heat until bubbling, then add the flour and stir until cooked but not browned.
Gradually add the cream or milk, stirring until smooth. If too thick, add a little more milk.

Shape and fry

Shape the mixture into pear shapes using a wine glass as a mold.
Moisten each croquette with egg yolk, roll in bread crumbs, and fry until golden.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Fish or salmon: Forms the bulk of the croquette and provides its main flavor.
Flour: Thickens the butter and cream into a binding sauce that holds the mixture together.
Cream or milk: Adds moisture and softness, loosening the flour mixture into a smooth binder.
Egg yolk: Binds the croquettes and helps the bread crumbs adhere before frying.
Butter: Adds richness and flavor to the base and helps form the roux with flour.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour in butter. The flour must be cooked until it loses its raw taste but stays pale, since browning changes its color and thickening power. Stirring keeps it smooth so the binder sets evenly and the mixture firms up enough to shape.

“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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Fried Fish120 recipes

Fish Croquettes81 recipes

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Fresh Fish Croquettes