The frugality of New Englanders is evident in a number of tried‑and-true regional dishes. One of my favorite examples is fish and potato cakes: In days gone by, leftover cooked fish scraps didn’t go to waste. Instead, the fish (usually cod, either fresh or salted) was flaked and folded into potatoes that had been mashed with milk and butter; the mixture was seasoned with aromatics and herbs (and sometimes bound with an egg) before being shaped into cakes. The cakes were then coated in bread crumbs and pan-fried to develop crispy, golden exteriors that encased creamy interiors.
Today, the dish is a regional classic, generally made with fresh fish and served with lemon wedges and tartar sauce in roadside diners from Rhode Island all the way to the Maritimes.
Modern cod and potato cakes are still economical—a mere pound of fish can be stretched with potatoes to serve four people. That said, the cakes should still taste more like fish than potato. Exemplary versions are also moist and delicate on the inside but not so fragile that they fall apart easily during shaping, frying, or eating.
Unfortunately, none of the recipes I tested produced ideal cakes. The biggest issue I encountered was a mushy, wet interior caused by boiling the potatoes and mashing them with lots of milk and butter. There was simply too much moisture in the spuds, which led to sodden cakes. But the potatoes weren’t the only culprit: The fish mattered, too. Most recipes call for poaching the fillets in milk or water, which—as with the potatoes—tends to bring extra liquid along for the ride.
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