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Fish Cakes

Fish cakes made with mashed potatoes, cooked fish, spices, egg, breadcrumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the cooked fish finely after removing skin and bones.

  2. Mash the potatoes and melt the butter, then mix them with the fish and add salt, pepper, and mace.

Shape and coat

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

  2. Brush each cake with beaten egg and coat with breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the cakes in hot dripping or oil until nicely browned.

  2. Drain on paper towels and garnish 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.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Potato + fishtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Cooked fish
Forms the main body and flavour of the cakes.
Mashed potatoes
Bind the fish and add softness and moisture to the cakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the mixture.
Egg
Glazes the cakes and helps breadcrumbs adhere, aiding browning.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in hot dripping or oil. The fat must be hot enough to brown the breadcrumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the cakes absorb oil, turn greasy, and the coating can fall off before it sets.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, fish, butter, 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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