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Codfish Croquettes

A fried codfish and potato mixture shaped into croquettes and coated with egg and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 the mixture

  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.

Coat and fry

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

  2. Lay them in a frying basket and sink in deep boiling lard, testing the heat with a bit of bread.

  3. Fry until the croquettes are a fine golden-brown, then lift out the basket and let it drain.

Serve

  1. Serve the croquettes 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.
Codfish
Provides the main flavor and protein, binding into the mixture with the potatoes.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the potato mixture.
Cream or rich milk
Adds moisture and softness so the mixture holds together smoothly.
Egg
Acts as a binder and helps the bread crumbs adhere to the outside.
Fine bread-crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Testing the lard temperature. If the lard is too cool, the croquettes absorb excess fat and turn greasy; if too hot, the crumb coating browns before the centre heats through. Testing with a bit of bread shows whether the fat is hot enough to brown the coating quickly.

Swap the potato

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