Why it works: Corn and fish work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 70 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Corn Meal Fish Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Scald corn meal in boiling water with salt added.
Remove from heat and add fat and fish.
When cool, beat well and add baking powder.
Drop spoonfuls into hot fat and fry until brown.
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.
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Corn + fishtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together70 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn meal
- Forms the bulk of the cake and sets into a firm, tender base when scalded.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that helps the cakes rise and turn light inside.
- Cod fish
- Provides the main flavour and the flaky texture of the cakes.
- Fat
- Adds richness and moisture, and helps the outside brown in the frying fat.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls into hot fat and fry until brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the cakes absorb oil and turn greasy instead of forming a crisp, browned crust. Hot fat seals the surface quickly.
“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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