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Cod-fish Balls

A dish of mashed potato and cod fish formed into balls and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cod-fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine mashed potatoes, flaked cod fish, butter, and chopped hard-boiled egg. Mash the mixture well until smooth.

  2. Form the mixture into balls.

Fry and serve

  1. In a skillet, heat equal parts butter and lard over medium heat.

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

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

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

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

  3. Potato + fishtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft body that holds the fish balls together.
Cooked cod
Supplies the flaky fish base and main flavor of the balls.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and helps the outside brown when frying.
Hard-boiled egg
Binds the mixture and adds body to the filling.

The step that matters

Frying the balls until golden brown. Fry over medium heat so the outside browns and crisps before the inside heats through. Too much heat browns the surface too fast and can leave the centre underdone.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, 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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