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Fish Croquettes

Fish croquettes made from boiled fish, seasoned, bound with gravy, shaped, coated, fried, and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Fish Croquettes

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the fish, then remove the bones and chop it.

  2. Add salt, red pepper, and onion to the fish.

  3. Make gravy using the water from boiling the fish; add milk, butter, and flour.

  4. Stir in the chopped fish mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Roll the croquettes in beaten egg and then in cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry the croquettes in hot lard until golden brown.

  4. Garnish with parsley before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. 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

White fish
Forms the main body of the croquettes and gives them their flavour.
Milk
Combines with butter and flour to make a gravy that moistens the fish mixture.
Flour
Thickens the milk and fish water into a gravy that binds the mixture together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy, softening the texture of the mixture.
Egg
Coats the shaped croquettes so the cracker crumbs adhere and form a crust.

The step that matters

Fry the croquettes in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb more fat and turn greasy, while the coating may not brown properly. Hot oil seals the crumb coating quickly, giving a crisp, golden exterior.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, milk, butter, flour, egg, parsley):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, milk, butter, flour, egg, parsley. 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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