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Fish Croquettes

Fish croquettes made with flaked fish, flour, butter, milk, and breadcrumbs, then fried and garnished with parsley and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Fish Croquettes

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 ↓

Fish Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a bowl, cream together the flour and butter.

  2. In a double boiler, heat the milk until boiling, then add the flour and butter mixture.

  3. Stir until smooth and thick, then season with salt and pepper and add the flaked fish.

  4. Spread the mixture on a platter and let it cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the cooled mixture into croquettes, roll in flour, dip in beaten egg, and coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Arrange on a hot dish and garnish with parsley and lemon slices.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Combined with butter and milk, it thickens the binder that holds the fish together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the white sauce base, softening the texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the white sauce, which thickens into a creamy binder.
Cooked fish
Provides the main filling and flavor of the croquettes.
Egg
Acts as a binder and wash that helps the bread crumbs adhere.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture fully before shaping. A warm, loose mixture cannot hold its shape and may fall apart. Cooling lets the starch-thickened binder set firm enough to roll and coat without breaking.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, 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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