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Fish Croquettes

Fish croquettes made from boiled fish, cream, butter, eggs, spices, coated in flour and breadcrumbs, fried or boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Fish Croquettes

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pick out the flesh from the boiled fish and pound it in a mortar.

  2. Moisten the fish with cream or milk and butter.

  3. Add eggs, pepper, salt, and spices to taste, mixing until smooth and thick.

  4. Shape the mixture into balls or desired shapes, dusting with flour.

Cook and serve

  1. To boil, gently drop into boiling milk or water and cook for 1-2 minutes.

  2. To fry, dip in beaten egg, coat with bread crumbs, and fry until golden.

  3. Serve with a sharp sauce or garnished with 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.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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

Fish
Provides the main body and flavour of the croquettes.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds its shape when cooked.
Cream or milk
Moistens the pounded fish so the mixture stays tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when the croquettes are fried.

The step that matters

Frying the coated croquettes. Frying until golden browns the crumb coating through the Maillard reaction, giving flavour and crispness, while a hot oil keeps the inside from absorbing grease and turning soggy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, cream, butter, egg, pepper, flour, bread. 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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