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Fish Fritters

Fish fritters are small fish mixed with eggs, flour, garlic, parsley, and seasonings, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Cook the fish and mash it.

  2. Beat the egg yolks until light and thick.

  3. Gradually add the flour, salt, pepper, minced garlic, parsley, and mashed fish.

  4. Beat the egg whites until frothy and fold them into the mixture.

Fry

  1. Heat oil in a pan and drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot oil.

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

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

  2. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Garlic + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten it for a tender texture.
Flour
Gives the batter body so the fritters hold their shape while frying.
Small fish
Forms the main body of the fritters, providing flavor and substance.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten until frothy trap air that lightens the batter. Stirring them in vigorously deflates that air, leaving dense fritters instead of light ones.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, egg, flour, parsley. 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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