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Fish Balls

Fish balls made from salt cod, potatoes, butter, pepper, and egg, boiled, mashed, mixed, 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 ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Cook the salt cod fish and potatoes in boiling water until tender.

  2. Drain, mash, and beat the mixture.

  3. Add butter and pepper, then mix well.

  4. Beat the egg and add it to the mixture, beating until light.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into balls and fry in deep fat.

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. Butter + eggtop 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

Salt cod fish
Provides the main savoury flavour and protein base of the balls.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, so the mash holds its shape and stays soft inside.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, softening the mash and improving flavour.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and, when beaten in, lightens its texture.

The step that matters

Beating the egg into the mixture. Beating the egg until light adds air and helps it blend evenly, so the balls hold together and fry with a light texture rather than turning dense or loose.

Swap the potato

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

  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, 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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