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Fish Cakes

Fish cakes made with cooked fish, potatoes, butter, egg yolk, breadcrumbs, and fried parsley garnish.

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 base

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

  2. Pass the cooked potatoes through a wire sieve.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the fish and potatoes.

  4. Stir in the egg yolk and season with pepper and salt.

  5. Cook until the mixture binds together into a ball, then let it cool on a plate.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into cakes, brush with beaten egg, and dip in breadcrumbs.

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

  3. Drain on paper and 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
Provides the main body and flavour of the cakes.
Cooked potatoes
Adds starch and softness, helping the mixture hold together and stay moist.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the mixture a softer, more tender texture.
Egg yolk
Acts as a binder that helps the mixture set and hold its shape.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture into a ball. Cooking drives off excess moisture so the mixture firms up. If it is too wet, the cakes will fall apart or greasy in the pan. Letting it cool before shaping makes it easier to handle.

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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