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Plokkfiskur (Mashed Fish and Potato)

Name: Plokkfiskur (Mashed Fish and Potato)
Prep time: 58 min
Total time: 58 min
Cuisine: Icelandic
Ingredients: skinless cod fillet — 600 g; potatoes — 800 g; onion — 200 g; butter — 50 g; all-purpose flour — 40 g; regular milk — 500 g; salt — 7 g; ground white pepper — 3 g; plain skyr — 100 g; rye bread — 224 g; butter — 40 g; chives — 20 g

Plokkfiskur (Mashed Fish and Potato) reads richness 5.5, salinity 3.6 and allium 3.4 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Icelandic main, about 58 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 4.0 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 1.1 / 10
Sour & Bright — 1.0 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 1.4 / 10
Rich & Fat — 6.3 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 3.8 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 5.5 · Salinity 3.6 · Allium 3.4 · Nutty 2.6 · Herbaceous 2.3 · Umami 2.1 · Funk & Ferment 1.6 · Earthy 1.3 · Bitterness 1.2 · Warm Spice 1.1 · Sweetness 1.1 · Sourness 1.0 · Heat 0.8

What's in it (12)

skinless cod fillet — 600 g
potatoes — 800 g
onion — 200 g
butter — 50 g
all-purpose flour — 40 g
regular milk — 500 g
salt — 7 g
ground white pepper — 3 g
plain skyr — 100 g
rye bread — 224 g
butter — 40 g
chives — 20 g

Time & effort: about 58 min · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 144.3 kcal, 8.8 g protein, 3.3 g fat, 20 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood · Contains dairy — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

Boil the potatoes in their skins in salted water for 25 minutes, until tender. Drain, cool a little, peel and cut into rough 2 cm chunks.
Poach the fish in barely simmering salted water for 8 minutes, until it flakes. Lift it out and break it into large pieces with your fingers, checking for pin bones as you go. Plokkfiskur was built on yesterday's boiled fish and yesterday's potatoes, and it is still the best possible use of both.
Melt the butter in a wide pan and cook the onion over medium heat for 6 minutes, until soft and translucent but not coloured.
Stir in the flour and cook 2 minutes, then add the milk in three additions, whisking smooth each time. Simmer 8 minutes, until the sauce is thick.
Fold in the fish and potato with a wooden spoon, breaking the potato down a little as you go but leaving the fish in visible flakes. The name means plucked fish — it should look roughly plucked apart, not puréed.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the skyr and the white pepper, tasting for salt. Skyr is a strained fresh cheese made with rennet, not a yoghurt, and its sharpness cuts the white sauce; adding it off the heat stops it splitting. This finish is a modern Reykjavík habit rather than the old farmhouse version, which stopped at the béchamel.
Serve hot in bowls with the chives over the top, and dark rúgbrauð thickly buttered on the side. Some Icelandic households brown the whole thing under a grill first; both ways are standard.
Substitutions: haddock fillet can stand in for the skinless cod fillet.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

Kishk Soup (Shorbet Kishk) — Lebanese
Salo z Chasnykom (Cured Pork Fatback with Garlic) — Ukrainian
Shish Barak (Meat Dumplings in Cooked Yoghurt) — Syrian
Green Bean Amandine — French
Vareniki (Вареники) — Russian

Keep reading: what richness, salinity, allium mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.