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Salt Codfish Cakes

Salt codfish cakes are fried cakes made from boiled codfish, mashed potatoes, egg, butter, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salt Codfish Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the codfish overnight.

  2. In the morning, place the fish in a saucepan with cold water and bring to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, reduce heat and let the fish steam without boiling.

  4. When cooked, remove bones and drain the fish.

Make the cakes

  1. Add the hot boiled potatoes and mash together with the fish.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, then mix in the beaten egg and butter.

  3. Form the mixture into cakes 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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the main savory flavor and the flaky body of the cakes.
Potatoes
Mashed starch gives the cakes their soft body and helps them hold together.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while frying.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Let the fish steam without boiling. Boiling toughens and dries the fish proteins, so gentle steaming keeps the flesh moist and tender for mashing.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, 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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