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Fish Patties

Fish patties made from flaked bream mixed with butter, flour, milk, anchovy, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fish Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Bake the fish in the oven or use cold fish from the larder.

  2. Remove the skin and bones, then flake the fish.

Make the filling

  1. Make a sauce by melting the butter, adding flour and milk, and seasoning with anchovy, pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

  2. Stir in the flaked fish and mix well.

Shape and bake

  1. Line small patty pans with flaky pastry.

  2. Place a spoonful of the fish mixture in the center, cover with a round of pastry, press the edges together, and trim into a neat shape.

  3. Make a small hole in the center with a skewer.

  4. Brush the tops with egg or milk.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on fancy paper.

  2. Garnish each patty with a tiny sprig of 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Bream
Provides the flaked fish that forms the main body of the filling.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat, adding richness and a smooth texture to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and milk into a sauce that holds the fish together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and softness to the filling.
Egg or milk
Brushed on the tops, it promotes browning and a glossy golden finish.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce before adding the fish. Flour must be cooked with the butter and milk until thick so the sauce binds the filling; a thin sauce makes the patties wet and prone to bursting in the oven.

“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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