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Cod-fish Balls

A dish of mashed cod fish and potatoes formed into balls and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cod-fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine mashed potatoes and cod fish in a bowl.

  2. Add butter and the hard-boiled egg, then mash well together.

  3. Form the mixture into balls.

Fry

  1. Fry the balls in equal parts butter and lard until 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.

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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Fish + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 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

Mashed potatoes
Provides the bulk and soft body that binds the mixture together.
Cod fish
Supplies the main flavour and savoury character of the balls.
Hard-boiled egg
Adds richness and helps bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the mixture and browns the outside when frying.
Lard
Provides frying fat with a high smoke point for even, golden browning.

The step that matters

Fry until brown. Frying in hot fat browns the outside through the Maillard reaction, adding flavour and a crisp crust. Too little heat leaves the balls pale and greasy, while the centre needs time to warm through.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Leekfits about as well

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