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Fish Cutlets

Fish cutlets made with fish, butter, eggs, bread, tomato, and spices, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Fish Cutlets

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cook the fish in salted water and remove all bones.

Make the cutlets

  1. Combine the fish, butter, eggs, soaked bread, salt, pepper, and strained tomato in a bowl.

  2. Mix well and shape into cutlets.

  3. Dip each cutlet in egg.

  4. Dip each cutlet in crushed crackers.

Fry

  1. Fry the cutlets in butter or lard 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  4. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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

Fish
Forms the main body of the cutlets once cooked and boned.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the coating adhere to each cutlet.
Soaked bread
Adds moisture and softness, helping the cutlets stay tender.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the cutlets brown when fried.
Tomato
Adds moisture and mild acidity, giving the mixture flavor.

The step that matters

Shape and coat the cutlets evenly before frying. The mixture is soft and moist, so cutlets that are loosely shaped or thinly coated can break apart in the pan. Firm shaping and a complete egg and cracker coating help them hold together and brown evenly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, egg, bread, pepper. 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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