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Steamed Fish Cake

A steamed fish cake made with cooked fish, breadcrumbs, mashed potatoes, butter, eggs, milk, parsley, lemon, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Steamed Fish Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the cooked fish, stirring over low heat until warm.

  2. Mix in the chopped parsley, mashed potatoes, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

  3. Beat the eggs and combine with the milk, then add to the fish mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold and steam for 1 hour.

  2. Turn out the fish cake and serve with white sauce poured around it.

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

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

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 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
Forms the main body and flavour of the cake.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when steamed.
Mashed potatoes
Add body and moisture, giving a softer, tender texture.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and help the cake hold its shape.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays soft and cooks evenly.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, improving flavour and mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a buttered mold and steam for 1 hour. The egg mixture sets as it heats, so the steam must be gentle and steady. Buttering the mold prevents sticking, so the cake turns out whole.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

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