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Mock Cod Fish Balls

A potato-based fish ball made with grated onion, mace, butter, egg yolks, and cracker crumbs, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mock Cod Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Wash, peel, and boil six medium sized potatoes for ten minutes in salted water.

  2. Drain the potatoes and grate them while hot.

  3. Stir in two heaping tablespoonfuls of butter; mix thoroughly.

Make the mixture

  1. Season with salt, cayenne pepper to taste, and add a teaspoonful of grated onion and a saltspoonful of mace.

  2. Beat two egg yolks lightly and stir well into the mixture with two heaping tablespoonfuls of cracker crumbs.

  3. Form small balls from the mixture.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the balls brown in boiling fat without crowding them in the basket.

  2. Drain the fried balls on kitchen paper.

  3. Serve very hot on a platter, garnish with parsley.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

463Calories
13 gProtein
19 gFat
61 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cracker5 saltine crackers (15g)66
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 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
Form the bulk of the balls, giving a soft, starchy interior once cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the mashed potato hold together smoothly.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body so the mixture can be shaped into balls.

The step that matters

Fry the balls without crowding the basket. Crowding drops the temperature of the fat, so the balls soak up oil instead of browning quickly and crisping on the outside.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, potato, butter, egg, 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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