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Whiting — Continued

Croquettes made from pounded whiting fillets mixed with bread panada, butter, eggs and veloute sauce, then breaded and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Whiting and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Whiting — Continued

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish mixture

  1. Remove the skin from the fillets of the Whiting.

  2. Pound the fillets in a mortar until smooth.

  3. Combine the fish with bread panada and butter.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  5. Stir in the beaten eggs and enough veloute sauce to achieve a soft but stiff mixture.

  6. Shape the mixture into small croquettes.

Fill and coat

  1. Make a hollow in the center of each croquette with a wooden spoon handle.

  2. Fill each hollow with soubise puree and cover with raw forcemeat.

  3. Brush the croquettes with beaten egg and coat with breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Melt butter or dripping in a frying pan.

  2. Fry the croquettes until browned.

  3. Drain on a napkin or dish-paper.

  4. Garnish with fried parsley before serving.

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. Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whiting
Provides the main body of the croquette mixture, becoming soft and smooth when pounded.
Bread panada
Adds moisture and binds the fish so the croquettes hold their shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the fish mixture and browns during frying.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when cooked, while the beaten egg wash helps breadcrumbs adhere.
Veloute sauce
Loosens the mixture to a soft but stiff texture and adds moisture.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden browned outer coating during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the croquettes until browned. The coating must be fully set and golden before the centre overheats. Frying in properly heated fat gives a crisp crust while the delicate fish filling cooks through gently.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, bread, butter, egg, sauce, 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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