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Fish Balls

Fish balls made with salt fish, potatoes, egg, butter, milk, and flour, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and potatoes

  1. Scald the soaked salt fish.

  2. Chop the hot fish very fine.

  3. Pare the potatoes.

  4. Boil the potatoes.

  5. Mash the boiled potatoes.

Make the mixture

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Add seasoning and butter to the boiling milk.

  3. Mix the hot fish and mashed potatoes.

  4. Add the beaten egg to the mixture.

  5. Pour the hot milk mixture over the fish and potato mixture.

  6. Beat the mixture until light.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture in flour.

  2. Fry the rolled mixture until light 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Salt fish
Provides the main savoury flavour and the fish body of the balls.
Potatoes
Give bulk and a soft, starchy body that holds the balls together.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds its shape when rolled and fried.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the texture and adding flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, keeping the mash soft and tender.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the outside brown when fried.

The step that matters

Fry the rolled mixture until light brown. Frying in hot fat browns the flour coating and sets the outside, so the balls stay crisp outside and hold together inside. Too little heat leaves them greasy and fragile.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, egg, butter, milk, flour):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, butter, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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