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Croquettes of Fish

A fried fish patty coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Croquettes of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove bones from the fish and mince it with seasoning.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg with flour and milk.

  3. Combine the minced fish with the egg mixture and form into medium-sized oblong rolls.

Coat and fry

  1. Brush the rolls with egg and coat them with bread or cracker crumbs.

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the croquettes and gives them their flavour.
Egg
Binds the minced fish together and helps the crumb coating adhere.
Flour
Thickens the egg mixture slightly, helping the croquettes hold their shape.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Forms a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Forming and coating the rolls before frying. Minced fish is soft and wet, so the rolls must be firm and evenly coated with egg and crumbs; otherwise they can fall apart or absorb oil and steam in the pan instead of browning crisply.

“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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