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Perfect Codfish Balls

A dish of mashed codfish and potatoes formed into balls and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Perfect Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes and fish

  1. In a large saucepan, combine sliced potatoes and codfish.

  2. Pour cold water over the mixture until covered, then bring to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, pour off the water, add fresh boiling water, and cook until potatoes are done.

  4. Drain well and mash the potatoes and fish together until fine.

Shape and fry

  1. Add butter, black pepper, and beaten egg yolks; mix well.

  2. If too soft, add a little cream to help form into balls.

  3. Shape the mixture into balls or cakes.

  4. Heat fat in a pan until thoroughly hot, then drop in the balls.

  5. Cook until golden brown, then drain on brown paper.

  6. Serve hot on a heated platter.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the salty, savory flavor and the flaky texture of the fish cakes.
Potatoes
Mashed starch binds the mixture and gives the balls a soft, fluffy interior.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mashed potato and fish so the balls hold their shape.

The step that matters

Heat the fat until thoroughly hot before adding the balls. If the fat is not hot enough, the balls absorb oil and cook slowly, becoming greasy instead of crisp and golden. Hot fat sears the outside quickly, forming a crust that holds the shape and limits oil uptake.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg, cream. 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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