Nova Scotia Fish Cakes Recipe (2024)

I've made these several times (and will again this evening), but would suggest chilling the patties after breading them covered with a little wax paper for maybe an hour. Then when you fry the patties they hold together really well. I like a slightly tangy dressing - mayo with lime juice and a dash or two of hot sauce.

Haddock or cod is not a very strong flavour so they would likely be overpowered by sweet potatoes or squash. I'm Nova Scotian and this recipe is fairly authentic. Our differences.. we use dried and reconstituted cod/haddock and don't bread the fish cakes. After making the cakes, refrigerate for about 1 hour and pan fry in butter until golden brown crust forms on both sides.

I don't like the taste of fried fish, or the extra calories. I baked these for 30 minutes on 400, flipping them once after 15 minutes. Nice crispy exterior and soft interior. Served with the remoulade by Samin Nosrat

My Scottish mother-in-law used to make these with smoked haddock. Sadly, I don't seem to be able to find smoked haddock any more. So I got a smoker!!!! Delicious and they freeze well. Do the egg dip and bread crumbs and then freeze between waxed paper before sealing in freezer bags. Thaw and pan fry.

Poaching fish in milk is a very British thing to do and Nova Scotia was settled by the Brits. It adds a creamy undertone to the taste of the fish.

I halved this recipe to serve 2.5 people as a main. Next time I would use slightly more fish to slightly less potato... as well as firming the mixture up in the fridge (which needed longer in my opinion than 30 mins as the mix is very sloppy ) I put the fishcakes onto greaseproof paper on a baking sheet and popped in the freezer for half an hour.
Made a sauce out of mayo, greek yoghurt, salt & white pepper, lemon juice, finely chopped capers & cornichon and finely chopped parsley.

Growing up in Nova Scotia, we ate these regularly. Often they were made with leftover fish and leftover mashed potatoes. We would never have used a mayonnaise based sauce such as tartar with them, but always ate them with chowchow. My grandmother used leftover bacon fat in place of butter for frying, a thrifty habit from the Depression that she also applied with less tasty results to her baking (bacon-tinged lemon meringue pie, anyone?).

Scandalous, but if you are away from fresh fish and have good canned salmon, this can be a no-recipe pantry centered weeknight hit. Use unpeeled thin skin potatoes. I like to add Old Bay seasoning and heavy on the scallions. Resting the patties a half hour in the fridge does help them stay together and you don’t need the crumb coating step. You always have a bag of red potatoes and a fistful of scallions in the fridge, right?

To Mary Catherine: I'm sure you could cook the fish and/or the potatoes the day before. My British mother very often made fish cakes like these, and the point of them was to use up leftover fish and mashed potatoes. perhaps not quite as delicious as freshly made, but lovely all the same.

I added some celery and celery leaves chopped fine and 6 not 4 scallions cooked with the butter then added some chili pepper and summer savory from Nova Scotia plus much more chopped Italian parsley. I used Pollock for the fish and kept skins on the new potatoes from the farmers market. Used gluten free cracker crumbs as coating. My husband is from Nova Scotia. He declared them "the best" he'd ever had!

Would this recipe work in the oven and if so, what would you recommend as time and temp/

Really good! I'd prep every thing and chill the mixture overnight to save time next time. Would make great fish sandwiches as leftovers

Would cut the amount of potatoes, tasted good though.

It would be great with a remoulade with some capers.

Made as instructed and ended up with 12 patties, great for dinner complemented by a panzanella salad. The patties were delicious, nice and crunchy, and the 1 lb. of potatoes were perfect. I just used a good quality mayo on top.

For our house have made the following pleasing changes to what is already a winner:- use a total of 1.25 to 1.5 lbs of fish split roughly 50:50 cod and shrimp & precook the med. shrimp for 1 minute in boiling salted water with a tbsp of lemon juice and then strain and cold stop….coarse chop and set aside- use 10 scallions…with 3 tbsp butter- in the cooked potato add 1/2 tsp chilli flakes- put formed cakes in freezer for 20 min before egg/bread and cook immediately

1 1/2 lbs codPotatoes: <= 1 lbMore pepperChill patties before frying Increase onion and parsley?

1 1/2 lbs codLess potato More pepperIncrease onions parsley

Just made this and it will now be a go-to recipe for me! The flavour is incredible - I think the magic ingredient is the Worcestershire sauce! I would recommend putting the patties back in the fridge for 30-60 minutes once they are shaped. I cooked them in my air fryer and they came out perfect!

I have 12 lbs of lovely wild cod in my freezer and am looking for recipes.I made this almost as written (I used very little bit of butter in sautee) and enjoyed it but found the fish to potato ratio a bit off-when I make it again I will use less potato and more fish. Loved the whole egg wash and panko-super crunchy.Could use a bit more zing....maybe lemon juice and pepper flakes. Also,30 cakes?I used a measuring cup and measured it to the recipe size and still only got 10 cakes.

I had to google what chowchow was but since I’m a pescatarian I omitted it.

I used half the amount of butter, and it was more than enough for flavor and texture. Would recommend making the batter and the cooling overnight to fry the next day for ease. Super delicious and loved; will make many times in the future.

I do not bother breading. Very tasty with mango jalapeño salsa.

This is a nice recipe but very bland as written. I added chiluly sauce, capers, kimchi Mayo, Dijon mustard and had to add bread crumbs to get it all to stick together. The scallions give a great flavor. I avoided the calories by frying in Pam and they did not stick to the pan at all. 3 people ate almost the whole recipe!

Halved recipe. Used 3/4 lb of potatoes as the mix seemed wet with only 1/2 lb. I used leeks instead of scallions; if I didn't have leeks, I'd use onion that has been cooked and softened.After mixing all the ingredients, I made the patties (there were 5 of them) and put them on waxed paper on a cookie sheet and chilled in the fridge for about an hour.I then dipped patties in eggs & breadcrumbs and baked on silpat on a baking sheet at 400F for 35 minutes. Served with Samin Nosrat's remoulade.

DELICIOUS. I baked them at 415 for 30 minutes flipping halfway through and they're still super crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. I also added a good amount of Old Bay because I couldn't resist. Perfect with lemon, tartar and tabasco!

Tasty fish cakes. Good proportion of fish to potato. Lot of steps but not difficult. Just need the time, doesn’t require constant attention. And yeah, a lot to wash up. I put some Tabasco on top for a little heat.

I squeezed the raw fish to drain and then dabbed dry with a couple of paper towels. Then put fish in milk; No problem put together patties. 1 cup breadcrumbs was plenty, even too much.Served on bed of red leaf lettuce, with tartar sauce and lemon with a side of roasted winter squash/red peppers on the side.

Better with a little thyme or similar herb and also higher ratio of fish to potato. ALso needs a little heat, so added a little Siracha. I added an extra egg to bind it better and add that flavor and that worked well.

Wondering if it is ok to use leftover fish? If so, should it still be soak in milk and then reheated? I assume the milk helps with binding.