Skip to main content
Main

Fish Cutlets

Fish cutlets made with chopped fish, butter, flour, water, anchovy essence, spices, egg, and breadcrumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Fish Cutlets

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add the flour and mix smoothly.

  3. Gradually add the water or fish stock while stirring continuously.

  4. Boil until it forms a smooth, thick sauce that clings to the spoon.

Mix and shape

  1. Remove from heat and add the chopped fish, anchovy essence, cayenne pepper, and salt; mix well.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a plate and let it cool.

  3. Once cool, shape the mixture into cutlet forms.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each cutlet in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the cutlets until golden brown.

Garnish and serve

  1. Insert a parsley stalk into the thin end of each cutlet and serve garnished with 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 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

Cold fish
Forms the bulk of the cutlet and provides its main flavour and texture.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the sauce and helps it stay smooth.
Flour
Cooks with the butter and water to thicken the sauce, helping bind the fish.
Egg
Binds the shaped cutlets and helps the bread crumbs adhere.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce until thick, then let the mixture cool before shaping. A thick, cooled sauce binds the chopped fish so the cutlets hold their shape. Shaping a warm, loose mixture makes it fall apart and can stick to the hands and plate.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes