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Codfish Balls

A fried ball made from boiled potatoes, codfish, pepper, butter, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Boil the diced potatoes and codfish until the potatoes are soft.

  2. Mash the potatoes and codfish together until smooth.

  3. Add pepper, butter, and 1 beaten egg to the mixture and combine well.

Shape and coat

  1. Form the mixture into balls.

  2. Dip each ball in the remaining beaten egg.

  3. Roll the balls in breadcrumbs until coated.

Fry

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potato
Starch that mashes into a soft, binding base for the balls.
Codfish
Provides the main savory flavour and salty, fish-based character.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and helps the breadcrumb coating adhere.
Breadcrumbs
Forms a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot lard until light brown. Frying in hot fat quickly crisps and browns the breadcrumb coating before the soft interior can absorb excess oil or fall apart. Fat that is not hot enough lets the balls soak up grease and turn heavy.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, 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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