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Codfish Balls

Codfish balls are made from salted cod, potatoes, egg, butter, and seasonings, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the cod in cold water and break it into small pieces.

  2. Wash, peel, and cut the potatoes into fair-sized pieces.

Make the mixture

  1. Cook the fish and potatoes together in boiling water until the potatoes are soft.

  2. Drain and dry the mixture over low heat.

  3. Mash the mixture with a fork and add the beaten egg, butter, pepper, and more salt if needed.

  4. Beat the mixture until light.

Fry and serve

  1. Take spoonfuls of the mixture, mold them slightly, and slip them into hot fat.

  2. Fry until brown and drain on paper towels.

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

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Potato + white peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. White pepper + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. White pepper + buttertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Salted cod
Provides the main fish flavor and the flaked body of the balls.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, helping the mixture hold together while staying soft.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture so the balls keep their shape when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the mixture over low heat. Excess water left in the cooked fish and potato makes the mixture loose, so the balls may fall apart or steam instead of browning in the hot fat.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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