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Fish Cakes

A dish of coarsely chopped fish mixed with mashed potatoes, egg, breadcrumbs, and seasonings, then shaped and fried or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA fairly hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the mixture

  1. Heat the butter or fat in a saucepan.

  2. Add the fish, potatoes, half the yolk of the egg, salt, pepper, and enough milk to moisten thoroughly.

  3. Stir the mixture over the heat for a few minutes, then transfer to a plate.

Shape and cook

  1. Once cooled, shape into round, flat cakes.

  2. Brush the cakes with egg, cover with breadcrumbs, and fry in hot fat.

  3. For a large cake, grease a flat tin, shape the mixture like a fish, brush with egg, cover with slightly browned crumbs, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  5. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the bulk of the cakes and provides the main flavor and body.
Mashed potatoes
Adds moisture and binding so the mixture holds together when shaped.
Butter or good fat
Adds richness and carries flavor, and helps the crumbs brown when frying.
Egg
The yolk binds the mixture, and the brushed egg helps breadcrumbs stick and brown.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture is soft enough to shape evenly.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the cakes.

The step that matters

Cooling before shaping. The mixture is soft when hot and will not hold a shape. Letting it cool firms the starches and fat so the cakes keep their form when handled and cooked.

Swap the potato

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

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

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