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Codfish Balls

Codfish balls are fried patties made from boiled codfish, potatoes, egg, butter, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil codfish and potatoes in plenty of cold water until potatoes are thoroughly cooked.

  2. Drain the water and mash the codfish and potatoes together.

  3. Add butter, beaten egg, and cream or milk to the mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Flour your hands and shape the mixture into balls or cakes.

  2. Heat ½ ounce each of butter and lard in a frying pan.

  3. Fry the balls until they are a nice 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Potatoes
Provide starch and bulk that bind the mixture and keep the balls tender.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture so the balls hold their shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the outside brown in the pan.
Cream or rich milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the balls until they are a nice brown. Frying in a hot fat browns the outside through the Maillard reaction, which adds flavor and color. Cooking too gently leaves them pale and greasy, while too much heat can scorch the outside before the centre is hot.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, 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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