Skip to main content
Main

New England Codfish Balls

A ball‑shaped codfish and potato mixture fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

New England Codfish Balls

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Place the potatoes in a saucepan and add the washed and finely picked codfish on top.

  2. Cover with boiling water and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

  3. Drain the water and let the saucepan sit on the back of the stove to dry out.

  4. Beat the mixture with a fork or whisk until light.

  5. Add the butter and well-beaten egg, and mix again.

  6. If the mixture is too stiff, add a teaspoon of hot milk.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop by teaspoonfuls into boiling hot fat, using a frying basket.

  2. Fry no more than four balls at a time.

  3. Reheat the fat between each batch.

  4. Drain the balls on soft paper and serve hot.

  5. For lunch, serve with tartar sauce.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the balls and give them a soft, tender body.
Salt codfish
Supplies the savoury, salty flavour that defines the dish.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Baking powder
Lightens the mixture so the balls puff and stay tender when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Drying the mixture on the stove. Letting the drained potato and cod sit over residual heat evaporates surface water. Wet mixture makes the balls soggy and prone to breaking apart in hot fat.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

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

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes