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Codfish Fritters

Codfish fritters made by simmering cod, mixing with flour, milk, eggs, and frying in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Codfish Fritters

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Codfish Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

  1. Soak the codfish overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain the water and cover the fish with fresh water.

  3. Simmer the fish on low heat until soft, ensuring it does not boil.

  4. Remove the bones and chop the fish.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the flour with the milk.

  2. Stir in the eggs.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a pan.

  2. Drop large spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot lard.

  3. Fry until golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main body of the fritters and becomes flaky when cooked gently.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during frying to hold the fritters together.
Flour
Adds body to the batter so it holds its shape in the pan.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the batter for a tender interior.
Lard (in the method)
Conducts heat to brown the outside and give a crisp, rich surface.

The step that matters

Simmer the fish without boiling. Gentle heat softens the fish and keeps it tender and flaky. A rolling boil toughens the proteins and makes the fish dry and stringy.

“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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