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Fish Balls

Fish balls made from salt codfish, potatoes, egg, fat, and pepper, boiled then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the fish in cold water and break it into very small pieces.

  2. Wash, peel, and soak the potatoes, then cut them into uniform pieces before measuring.

Make the mixture

  1. Cook the fish and potatoes in boiling water until the potatoes are soft.

  2. Drain the mixture thoroughly and return it to the pot.

  3. Mash the mixture well.

  4. Add the fat, beaten egg, and pepper, then beat the mixture with a fork for 2 minutes.

  5. Add salt if necessary.

Fry

  1. Scoop the mixture by spoonfuls into a frying basket.

  2. Fry the balls in deep fat for one minute.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

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

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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 codfish
Provides the main savory flavor and the fish texture of the balls.
Potatoes
Adds starch and bulk that bind the mixture and keep the balls soft inside.
Egg
Binds the mashed fish and potato together so the balls hold their shape.
Fat
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the outside brown when fried.

The step that matters

Drain the mixture thoroughly. Excess water left in the cooked fish and potato makes the mixture loose, so the balls can fall apart or absorb too much oil while frying.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper. 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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