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Tinned Salmon or Fish Cake

A fish cake made from tinned salmon, mashed potatoes, and seasonings, fried until golden.

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 ↓

Tinned Salmon or Fish Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Melt the butter with about ½ cup of milk; the amount of milk depends on the number of eggs used.

  2. Add the mashed potatoes, minced fish, pepper, salt, optional sweet herbs, and grated onion.

  3. Mix well, then add the egg and let the mixture cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small cakes on a floured surface.

  2. Dip each cake in egg and breadcrumbs, then fry in boiling oil until golden.

  3. Drain on paper towels and serve on a napkin, 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 + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled fish
Provides the main body and flavour of the cakes.
Mashed potatoes
Adds bulk and softness, helping the cakes hold together while staying tender.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the cakes hold their shape when fried.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.
Milk
Adds moisture to the mixture, keeping the cakes from drying out.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture cool before shaping. A cooled mixture is firmer and easier to form. Warm, soft mixture tends to slump and crack, and the egg sets more evenly once chilled.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pepper, potato, parsley, milk, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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