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Fish Cutlets

Cutlets of cooked flaked fish mixed with milk, breadcrumbs and seasoning, coated in egg and browned breadcrumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Fish Cutlets

Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Heat the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and blend well.

  3. Stir in the milk, flaked fish, white breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper.

Shape and coat

  1. Lift out small pieces, roll in flour, and form into cutlets.

  2. Dip the cutlets in egg and cover with browned breadcrumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Cooked fish
Forms the main body of the cutlets and gives them their flavour.
White breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and add bulk so the mixture holds together.
Flour
Thickens the butter and binds the mixture, and helps the cutlets keep their shape.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the cutlets.
Browned breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden-brown outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil until golden brown. The oil must be hot enough to brown the breadcrumb coating quickly. If the oil is too cool, the coating soaks up oil, turns greasy, and the cutlets may fall apart or cook unevenly.

“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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