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Cod Fish Balls

Cod fish balls are fried balls made from shredded cod, mashed potatoes, sweet milk, sweet cream, and cracker meal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Cod Fish Balls

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 ↓

Cod Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the shredded fish in boiling sweet milk for 3 hours.

  2. Remove the fish from the milk and wash it.

Form the balls

  1. Mix the fish with mashed potatoes, pepper, and sweet cream.

  2. Form the mixture into balls.

  3. Dip each ball in beaten egg, then coat with cracker meal.

Fry

  1. Fry the balls in hot lard 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  3. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

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

  5. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cod fish
Forms the main body of the balls and provides the flavour.
Mashed potatoes
Adds body and moisture, helping the mixture hold together when shaped.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness to the fish and potato mixture.
Egg
Binds the coating so the cracker meal adheres to the balls.
Cracker meal
Forms a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the balls absorb fat and turn greasy before the coating sets. Hot fat seals the crumb quickly, producing a crisp, evenly browned exterior.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, pepper, cream, 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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