Skip to main content
Main

Codfish Croquettes

Codfish croquettes are fried balls of mashed potatoes, cod, and cream coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Codfish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Melt the butter in the mashed potatoes.

  2. Add the codfish, pepper, and cream; mix thoroughly.

  3. Mould the mixture into round or oval balls.

  4. Roll the balls in the beaten egg, then in the fine bread-crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Place them in a frying basket and sink in deep boiling lard.

  2. Test the heat with a bit of bread.

  3. Fry until the croquettes are a fine golden-brown.

  4. Lift out the basket, let it drain for a moment, and serve on a folded napkin.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the croquette and give a soft, tender interior.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, improving flavour and softness inside.
Codfish
Provides the main flavour and flaky texture of the filling.
Cream or rich milk
Adds moisture and richness so the mixture stays soft and binds well.
Egg
Binds the coating so the bread-crumbs adhere and form a crust.
Fine bread-crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden-brown outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Test the heat with a bit of bread. If the lard is too cool, the croquettes absorb grease and turn soggy; if too hot, the crumb coating browns before the filling heats through. A bread cube sizzling steadily shows the right temperature.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, cream, 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes