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Fish, Croquettes of

Coarse fish and mashed potato mixture shaped into croquettes, breaded and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish, Croquettes of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove all skin and bones from the fish and chop it coarsely.

  2. Heat the butter in a saucepan, then add the fish, mashed potatoes, yolk of egg, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add enough milk to moisten the mixture thoroughly and stir over heat until well mixed.

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

Shape and fry

  1. Form the cooled mixture into cork-shaped pieces.

  2. Brush each piece with egg, coat with breadcrumbs, and fry in hot fat for about 5 minutes.

  3. Drain well and serve garnished with crisply-fried 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 of the croquettes and gives their savoury flavour.
Mashed potatoes
Adds bulk and softness, helping the mixture hold together without becoming dry.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the mixture while it is heated.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture so the pieces hold their shape when cooled and fried.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating during frying.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, moist mixture is soft and sticky, so it will not hold a cork shape and may split or fall apart in the hot fat. Cooling lets the starch and egg set so the pieces keep their form.

Swap the potato

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

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

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