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Fish, Croquettes of

A fried or baked fish mixture formed into cakes, optionally enriched with forcemeat and various seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fish, Croquettes of

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fairly hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Combine the fish with salt, pepper, and optional ingredients if using forcemeat.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into small cakes or one large cake.

  2. Brush the cakes with egg.

  3. Coat the cakes with breadcrumbs.

  4. Fry the cakes in hot fat until golden brown.

  5. Bake the cakes for 20 minutes if making a large cake.

Make the large cake

  1. For forcemeat, mix suet, breadcrumbs, parsley, seasonings, and moisten with egg or milk.

  2. Spread half of the fish mixture in a greased tin.

  3. Add forcemeat.

  4. Cover with the remaining fish mixture.

  5. Brush the cakes with egg.

  6. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

  7. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together440 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the bulk and body of the cakes.
Egg
Binds the mixture and gives a glossy, browned crust.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and form a crisp, golden coating.
Milk
Moistens the forcemeat so it stays tender.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and rich.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in hot fat until golden brown. Hot fat sets the breadcrumb coating quickly, so it crisps rather than soaking up grease. Fat that is too cool lets the coating absorb oil and turn heavy and soggy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, pepper, lemon, shrimp, anchovy, butter. 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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