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Fish Kromskies

Fish balls made with fish, rice, breadcrumbs, and parsley, wrapped in bacon, coated in batter, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,762 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Kromskies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the fish, cooked rice, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt, and pepper as you would for fish balls.

  2. Form the mixture into small rolls.

  3. Wrap each roll in a slice of bacon.

Batter and fry

  1. Cover the bacon-wrapped rolls with batter.

  2. Fry in hot fat 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.

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. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Fish + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together270 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold cooked fish
Forms the main body of the rolls, giving them their savory filling.
Cooked rice
Adds bulk and softness to the mixture, helping the rolls hold a tender interior.
White breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture so the rolls keep their shape.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky flavor, and browns as the rolls fry.
Batter
Forms a crisp golden coating that seals in moisture during frying.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy before it browns, and the rolls may cook unevenly. Hot fat sets the batter quickly to form a crisp crust.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, rice):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, rice. 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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