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Codfish Balls

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Boil and mash

  1. Boil the potatoes and codfish together until the potatoes are done.

  2. Drain the mixture and mash the potatoes and codfish.

  3. Add the egg and butter, then beat the mixture for 15 minutes.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into smoking hot lard, shaping them as desired.

  2. Turn the balls with a wire spoon until they are nicely browned.

  3. Remove the balls and place them on brown paper 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 + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. 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

Potatoes (in the method)
Form the bulk of the mixture and bind it into a soft, mashable body.
Codfish
Adds savoury, salty flavour and a flaky texture to the mash.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Beating the mixture for 15 minutes. Long beating develops a smooth, cohesive mash that holds together. Undermixing leaves crumbly balls that may break apart in the hot lard.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter. 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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