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Fish Cakes

Fish cakes are fried balls made from finely chopped fish, grated potato, eggs, cream, onions, salt, pepper, and fried in fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine equal quantities of finely chopped fish and grated potato in a bowl.

  2. Beat several eggs with a little salt and pepper in a separate bowl.

  3. Add thick cream and grated onions to the egg mixture and mix well.

  4. Combine the fish and potato mixture with the egg mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls using a tablespoon.

  2. Fry the balls in hot fat until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with rice or a salad of apples, tomatoes, and lettuce.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the cakes hold their shape while frying.
Potato
Adds body and starch that helps the mixture hold together and stay moist.
Left-over fish
Provides the main flavour and the bulk of the cakes.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the inside of the cakes tender.
Onions
Adds savoury flavour and moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot fat until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly, so the cakes crisp and hold their shape before the soft interior breaks apart or absorbs excess oil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, potato, egg, pepper, cream):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, egg, pepper, cream. 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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