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Codfish Balls

A fried ball made from mashed potatoes, codfish, eggs, butter, milk, pepper, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codfish

  1. Soak codfish in cold water for 1 hour if too salty, otherwise wash in cold water.

Make the potato base

  1. Place potatoes in a saucepan with codfish on top and pour boiling water over them.

  2. Cook until potatoes are done, then mash them.

  3. Season mashed potatoes with butter, milk, and pepper.

Form and fry

  1. Let mixture cool, then add 2 beaten eggs and form into balls.

  2. Roll balls in egg and cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry balls in deep oil until golden 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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Mashed potatoes form the bulk of the balls, giving a soft, starchy body.
Codfish
Flaked fish adds savory flavor and the characteristic texture of the balls.
Eggs
Beaten eggs bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed potatoes.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer coating when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs and shaping. Hot mashed potato would scramble the beaten eggs and make the mixture too soft to hold its shape, so cooling lets the eggs bind it cleanly.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, pepper, egg. 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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