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Croquettes of Fish

Croquettes of Fish are small fried balls made from minced fish, flour, milk, and egg, served with a fish bone gravy.

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 the fish

  1. Separate the fish from the bones and mince it.

  2. In a bowl, combine the minced fish, salt, beaten egg, flour, and milk.

Shape and coat

  1. Roll the mixture into balls.

  2. Brush each ball with egg.

  3. Dredge the balls in bread crumbs.

Fry and make gravy

  1. Fry the croquettes in hot oil until golden brown.

  2. To make gravy, simmer the fish bones and tail in 1 pint of water.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk 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

Minced fish
Forms the main body of the croquettes and provides their savory flavor.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and helps the coating adhere before frying.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the mixture so it holds its shape when rolled into balls.
Milk
Adds moisture to the mixture, keeping the croquettes tender inside.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp outer crust that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Fry the croquettes in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb excess oil and turn greasy, while the coating may not set before the inside overcooks. Frying in hot oil seals the crumb crust quickly and gives even browning.

“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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