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Codfish-balls

A fried ball made from mashed potatoes and cooked codfish, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Codfish-balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them.

  2. Cook the fish until flaky, then mix with the mashed potatoes.

  3. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls.

  2. Fry the balls in hot pork fat 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. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Fish + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together668 recipes

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

  4. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

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

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide starch and body that binds the fish and gives the balls a soft, mashed texture.
Fish
Supplies the main flavor and flaky texture that sets the character of the balls.
Pork fat
Conducts heat for frying and promotes browning and a crisp golden exterior.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot pork fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the balls absorb grease and turn heavy instead of crisping. Hot fat sears the surface quickly, forming a browned crust that holds the mixture together.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pork, 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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