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Codfish Balls

Codfish balls are fried balls made from boiled codfish mixed with mashed potatoes, butter, milk, and optional beaten egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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. Boil the codfish.

  2. Shred the boiled codfish into fine pieces, removing skin and bones.

  3. Place the fish in a pot of cold water.

  4. Bring the water to a slow boil. Skim off any scum.

  5. Pour off the water and replace it with boiling water.

  6. Bring to a boil again.

  7. Drain well.

Combine and shape

  1. In a bowl, mix the hot mashed potatoes with butter and milk until light.

  2. Combine the hot fish and mashed potatoes quickly to maintain lightness.

  3. Form the mixture into balls or thick, flat cakes.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat enough lard or beef dripping in a vessel to immerse the balls.

  2. Fry the balls in the hot fat until golden brown, turning to cook both sides.

  3. Optionally dip each ball in beaten egg before frying for a smoother texture.

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 + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main body of the balls, providing flavor and a flaky texture when shredded.
Hot mashed potatoes
Bind the fish together and keep the mixture light and tender.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the potato mixture and aiding browning.
Milk
Adds moisture to the mashed potatoes, keeping the mixture light and smooth.
Beaten egg
Helps bind the balls and gives a smoother surface when dipped before frying.

The step that matters

Combine the hot fish and mashed potatoes quickly. Starch in the potatoes sets as it cools and the mixture stiffens, so keeping everything hot and mixing quickly preserves a light, tender texture instead of a dense, gummy one.

“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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