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Fish Cakes

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

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Flake the boiled fish with a fork and place it in a bowl.

  2. Add pepper, salt, and cayenne to the fish.

  3. Peel and boil the potatoes, then mash them well.

  4. Mix in a little butter, hot milk, and chopped parsley with the mashed potatoes.

  5. Combine the fish mixture with half of a beaten egg and stir well.

  6. Flour your hands and shape the mixture into round cakes.

  7. Brush the cakes with the remaining beaten egg, then dip them into browned breadcrumbs.

  8. Fry the cakes in boiling fat until golden brown, then drain and serve hot.

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

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

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

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, potato, butter, milk, egg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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