Skip to main content
Main

Dropped Fish Balls

Fried balls made from mashed potatoes and chopped fish, bound with eggs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Dropped Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil the potatoes in a pot of water until tender, about 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the potatoes and mash them together with the fish until smooth.

  3. Add the butter, pepper, and beaten eggs to the mixture and combine well.

Fry

  1. Heat oil in a deep kettle until hot.

  2. Dip a tablespoon in the hot oil, then scoop a spoonful of the mixture and shape it.

  3. Drop the shaped mixture into the hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes.

  4. Avoid crowding the kettle and ensure the oil remains hot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 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
Provide the starchy bulk that binds the fish into a soft, tender mixture.
Fish
Supplies the main flavor and protein of the fish balls.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Keep the oil hot and avoid crowding the kettle. Hot oil sets the outside quickly so the balls brown and do not absorb excess oil. Adding too many at once cools the oil, which leads to greasy, unevenly cooked fish balls.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, butter, 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.

More fish balls recipes

Cod 40Salt 10Boston 6Cornmeal 3 See all 109 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes