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Fish Balls

Fish balls made with cold fish, mashed potatoes, milk, butter, egg, and breadcrumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the cold fish with the mashed potatoes.

  2. Add the milk, butter, salt, and pepper, and combine well.

  3. Form the mixture into balls or cakes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball in beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot fat for 2 minutes 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.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  5. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft body that holds the balls together.
Fish
Supplies the main flavour and protein of the balls.
Egg
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs stick and set during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Butter or dripping
Adds richness and helps the outside brown in the frying fat.

The step that matters

Fry in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it browns. Hot fat seals the crumb crust quickly so the inside stays moist and the outside turns golden.

Swap the potato

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

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

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