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Fish Balls

Fish balls made from shredded fish, mashed potatoes, egg, pepper, butter, coated in flour, egg, breadcrumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the shredded fish and hot mashed potatoes. Mix in the well-beaten egg and a little pepper.

  2. Add a small piece of butter and mix well.

  3. Form the mixture into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat each ball in flour, dip in egg, and then roll in fresh bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the balls in hot suet 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Shredded fish
Provides the main flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Hot mashed potatoes
Adds moisture and body so the mixture holds together when shaped.
Well-beaten egg
Binds the mixture so the balls keep their shape while frying.
Fresh bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned outer coating during frying.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot suet fat until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown and crisp the coating quickly; if it is too cool, the crumbs absorb fat and the balls turn greasy and may fall apart before the centre heats through.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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