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Codfish Balls

A dish of mashed codfish and potatoes formed into cakes and 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 ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Strip the codfish into small pieces, about 1 inch long, and keep the pieces in cold water.

  2. Pare the potatoes and cut them into 1-inch cubes.

Make the mixture

  1. Boil the codfish and potatoes together until the potatoes are done.

  2. Drain and mash them together, then beat the mash with a strong fork.

  3. Add the butter and pepper.

  4. Once cool, mix in the beaten egg.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into flat cakes and flour the cakes.

  2. Fry the cakes in hot pork fat until brown on both sides.

  3. Alternatively, fry spoonfuls in a frying basket in hot fat until 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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the main savory flavor and the flaked body of the cakes.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, helping the mixture hold together when shaped.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mash.
Large egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while frying.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before adding the egg. Adding the beaten egg to a hot mash can scramble it and leave uneven streaks. Letting the mixture cool first lets the egg blend in smoothly and bind the cakes evenly.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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