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Salt Fish Balls

Salt fish balls are fried balls made from mashed potatoes and shredded salt fish.

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 ↓

Salt Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Wash the salt fish and shred it into half-inch pieces.

  2. Pare the potatoes and cut them into quarters if large.

Cook and mash

  1. Put the potatoes and fish in a stew-pan and cover with boiling water.

  2. Cook for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

  3. Drain very well, mash fine, and add butter and pepper.

  4. Beat well, shape into balls using a spoon, and drop into hot fat.

Fry

  1. Fry until brown and drain on paper.

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

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

  5. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 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 mash, giving the balls their soft, starchy body.
Salt fish
Adds the savoury, salty flavour that defines the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Drain very well before mashing. Excess water left in the cooked potatoes and fish makes the mash loose and sticky, so the balls can fall apart or absorb too much oil when fried. Thorough draining gives a firmer mixture that holds its shape and browns cleanly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Tomatofits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, 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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