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Fish Cakes

A fried fish and potato mixture formed into cakes and cooked in hot dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 filling

  1. Remove skin and bones from the fish and break it into small pieces.

  2. Mash the cooked potatoes and add them to the fish.

  3. Mix in the melted butter, parsley, mace, salt, and pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Dip the mixture in milk, then coat with flour.

  2. Fry in hot dripping 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. Parsley + peppertop 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

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.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mixture.
Cooked potatoes
Bind the fish together and keep the cakes soft inside.
Milk
Moistens the mixture and helps the flour coating stick.

The step that matters

Coating with flour after the milk dip. A thin, even coat of flour helps the cakes hold together and brown evenly in the hot dripping. Too much flour can make the coating heavy and pasty.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

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