Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fish Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Chop the fish, bacon, and parsley finely, and mix them with the seasoning.
Make a thick sauce with ½ cup water, 1 oz. flour, and 1 oz. butter; flavor with anchovy and stir in the fish.
Simmer for a few minutes, stir in the yolk of the egg, and turn onto a plate to cool.
Form the mixture into small balls.
Cook and serve
Fill a frying pan with boiling water, add the balls, cover, and simmer gently for ten minutes.
Dish the balls in a circle and pour over the melted butter flavored with anchovy; garnish with parsley and serve.
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.
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Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together637 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,330 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
- Cold fish
- Forms the bulk of the balls and gives them their main flavor.
- Thick sauce
- Binds the chopped fish and bacon so the mixture holds its shape.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps bind the mixture as it cools and sets.
- Fat bacon
- Adds fat and moisture, keeping the chopped fish balls tender.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and moisture when poured over the finished balls.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before forming the balls. A warm, soft mixture is hard to shape and may fall apart. Cooling lets the starch in the thick sauce and the egg yolk firm up, so the balls hold together during simmering.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, sauce, anchovy, butter, egg, pepper):
- Capersfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Tarragonfits less well
- Nutmegfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, sauce, anchovy, 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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