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Boston Fish-balls

Boston fish balls are fried balls made from boiled salt fish, potatoes, butter, eggs, and pepper.

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 ↓

Boston Fish-balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Place the salt fish and potatoes in a pot of cold water and boil until the potatoes are fully cooked.

  2. Remove from heat and drain all the water.

  3. Mash the potatoes and fish together using a potato masher.

  4. Add the butter, beaten eggs, and pepper, and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Shape and fry

  1. Dust a clean surface and your hands with flour.

  2. Take small pieces of the mixture and roll them into balls about the size of a small egg.

  3. Fry the balls in hot fat until golden brown, similar to frying doughnuts.

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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Salt fish
Provides the main savoury flavour and the characteristic taste of the fish balls.
Potatoes
Provide starch and bulk, giving the mixture a soft, mashable body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing moisture and a softer texture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the balls absorb oil and turn greasy before the outside browns and sets. Hot fat quickly forms a crisp, golden crust that seals in the moisture.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, egg, butter, 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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