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Fish Patties

Fish patties made from boiled eel, carp, tench, and oysters, bound with mace, sherry, and butter, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Fish Patties

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Boil the eel, carp, and tench for a short time.

  2. Stew the oysters for a few minutes.

  3. Remove the flesh from the bones of the fish.

Make the forcemeat

  1. In a mortar, beat the fish flesh with the smelts, mace, and sherry until well combined.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line the tins with rich paste.

  2. Fill with the forcemeat, add one oyster and a bit of butter.

  3. Cover with paste and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mace + sherrytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Oyster + sherrytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together340 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Mace + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Mace and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eel
Adds rich, oily flesh that keeps the filling moist and flavorful.
Carp
Firm white flesh that, once beaten, gives the forcemeat its body.
Tench
Mild, firm fish flesh that adds bulk and texture to the forcemeat.
Oysters
Briny, savory juices add depth of flavor and moisture to the filling.
Rich paste
Sturdy, buttery pastry that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich fish filling.

The step that matters

Boil the fish only briefly. The fish cooks again in the oven, so over-boiling it toughens the flesh and dries it out. Proteins tighten with prolonged heat, which makes the later beaten forcemeat dense and crumbly rather than moist.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, sherry, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, sherry, 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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