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Fish Croquettes

A fried fish patty made with minced fish, onion, stock, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Fish Croquettes

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Fry the minced onion in butter until browned.

  2. Moisten with white stock, adding salt, pepper, and cayenne if desired.

  3. Stir in the minced fish and eggs, cooking for 2 minutes over heat.

  4. Let the mixture cool, then shape into cylinders or pears.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each croquette in egg yolk and then in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot fat for 2-3 minutes 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 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

Eggs
Bind the fish mixture so the croquettes hold their shape when cooked.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.
Egg yolk
Acts as a glue so the bread crumbs stick to the shaped croquettes.
White stock
Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the fish mixture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour while softening and browning the onion.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, soft mixture is hard to shape and can slump or split. Cooling lets the eggs set it slightly, so the croquettes hold their form in the hot fat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, fish, egg, bread. 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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