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Fish Cakes

A fried fish and potato mixture formed into cakes and coated with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and potatoes

  1. Remove the bones and skin from the fish and chop it up.

  2. Rub the potatoes through a wire sieve.

Make the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the fish and potatoes to the melted butter.

  3. Stir in the egg yolk.

  4. Season with pepper and salt.

  5. Cook until the mixture binds together into a ball.

  6. Cool the mixture on a plate.

Shape, coat and fry

  1. Form the mixture into cakes.

  2. Brush the cakes with beaten egg.

  3. Dip the cakes in breadcrumbs.

  4. Fry the cakes in boiling oil until golden brown.

  5. Drain the cakes on paper.

  6. Serve garnished with fried parsley.

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

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 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

Cooked fish
Forms the main body of the cakes and gives them their flavour.
Cooked potatoes
Add starch and body, helping the mixture hold together and stay moist.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and softening the mixture.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture and helps it set when cooked.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture binds together into a ball. Cooking drives off excess moisture and lets the starch in the potatoes and the egg yolk set, so the mixture holds its shape. Under-cooked mixture stays soft and falls apart when shaped or fried.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

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