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Whitefish Fritters

A fried fritter made from flaked whitefish, mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, cream, eggs, and seasonings, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Whitefish Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine flaked fish, mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, cream, egg yolks, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Form mixture into cakes or balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Beat egg whites lightly and dip each cake into the whites, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Garnish with parsley and serve hot.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Whitefish + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 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

Whitefish
Forms the main body of the fritter and provides its flavor.
Mashed potatoes
Add starch and moisture that help the mixture bind and stay tender.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together in shape.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness to the interior.
Egg whites
Form a light coating that helps the crumb crust set and brown when fried.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the coated cakes absorb oil and turn greasy and soft instead of crisp. Oil that is too hot browns the crust before the centre cooks through.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whitefish, bread, cream, egg, pepper, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against whitefish, bread, cream, egg, pepper, 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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