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Fish Cakes

A fried patty made from shredded fish, mashed potatoes, eggs, flour, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Fish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove skin and bones from the fish and shred it finely.

  2. Combine the fish and mashed potatoes in a bowl.

  3. Add the beaten eggs, flour, and seasoning.

  4. Mix in just enough milk to form a paste that can be beaten, but avoid making it too thin.

Fry

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot oil and fry until golden brown.

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 + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  2. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

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

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the cakes set when fried.
Mashed potatoes
Add body and moisture, keeping the cakes tender inside.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the mixture slightly so it holds its shape.
Milk
Adds moisture to form a workable paste without making it too thin.

The step that matters

Mix in just enough milk. Too much milk makes the paste thin and loose, so the spoonfuls spread and may fall apart in the hot oil. Adding milk gradually until the mixture just holds together gives cakes that keep their shape.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, flour, milk):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, flour, 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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