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Codfish Balls

A fried ball made from shredded codfish, mashed potatoes, egg, and seasonings.

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

Prepare the codfish

  1. Soak the codfish for 2‑3 hours.

  2. Boil the codfish in water with vinegar for 15 minutes.

  3. Spread the codfish on a sieve to cool.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the cooled codfish with mashed potatoes until smooth.

  2. Heat the mixture and beat in 1 frothed egg for every cup of fish.

  3. Season with pepper and let the mixture cool completely.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls and roll in flour.

  2. Refrigerate the balls to stiffen.

  3. When ready, roll the balls in flour again and fry in hot oil 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the main flavour and the bulk of the mixture.
Mashed potatoes
Adds body and moisture, helping the mixture hold together when shaped.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls keep their shape while cooking.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the outside turn golden brown when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool completely before shaping. A warm, soft mixture is sticky and loose, so the balls can fall apart or stick to the hands. Chilling firms the starches and proteins so the balls hold their shape in hot oil.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, pepper, flour. 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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