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Fish Cakes

Fish cakes made from boiled fish and potatoes, seasoned with pepper and salt, bound with egg and milk, coated in breadcrumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and potatoes

  1. Remove skin and bones from the fish and flake it.

  2. Mash the potatoes smoothly.

  3. Mix the fish and potatoes together, seasoning with pepper and salt.

Make the mixture

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk and butter until hot.

  2. Add the fish and potato mixture to the saucepan and stir until heated through.

  3. Beat the egg and mix half into the fish and potato mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into cakes and coat with bread crumbs.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled potatoes
Provide starch and bulk that hold the cakes together and keep them moist.
Cold boiled fish
Supplies the main flavour and protein that give the cakes their body.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold their shape when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the mixture and helps keep it moist.
Milk
Softens the mixture and adds moisture for a tender texture.

The step that matters

Fry in hot fat until golden brown. Fat that is hot enough sears the bread crumb coating quickly, browning it and sealing in moisture. Fat that is too cool soaks in and makes the cakes greasy and likely to fall apart.

Swap the potato

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

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

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