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Cod-fish Balls

A savory dish of cod fish mixed with mashed potatoes, eggs, and butter, formed into cakes and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Cod-fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod and potatoes

  1. Soak the salt cod-fish in cold water overnight.

  2. Boil the cod-fish slowly until cooked.

  3. Boil the Irish potatoes until tender, then mash them while warm.

Make and fry the cakes

  1. Mix the mashed potatoes with one third of the cod-fish and two thirds of the mashed potatoes.

  2. Add the butter, eggs, and milk to the mixture and combine well.

  3. Shape the mixture into cakes about an inch thick.

  4. Fry the cakes in hot lard or pieces of salt pork until browned.

Serve

  1. Hard-boil some eggs, cut them in halves, and place a piece in the center of each fish ball before serving.

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 + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Butter + milktop 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 + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together668 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Salt cod-fish
Provides the main savory flavor and the flaked body of the fish balls.
Irish potatoes
Mashed starch binds the mixture and gives the cakes a soft, tender interior.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the cakes hold their shape while frying.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing moisture and a softer texture.
Milk
Adds moisture to the mashed mixture, keeping the cakes tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in hot fat until browned. Fat that is hot enough sears the outside quickly, forming a browned crust that holds the cake together and limits fat soaking in. Cool fat lets the cakes absorb grease and fall apart.

“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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