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Codfish Balls

Codfish balls are fried balls made from codfish, mashed potatoes, butter, egg, pepper, and salt.

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

  1. Soak the codfish in cold water overnight, changing the water at bedtime.

  2. In the morning, boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them with the butter until smooth.

Make the balls

  1. Remove all bones from the codfish and mix it with the mashed potatoes, beating with a fork.

  2. Beat the egg until frothy and mix it into the codfish and potato mixture.

  3. Season with black pepper and coarse sea salt, and form the mixture into small balls.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan and fry the balls until they are light brown, about 5 minutes.

  2. Serve immediately on a dish with sprigs of parsley.

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

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. 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

Codfish
Forms the main body of the balls and supplies the savoury flavour.
Potatoes
Add starch and softness, binding the fish and keeping the balls moist.
Butter
Adds richness and smoothness to the mashed potato.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.

The step that matters

Forming and frying the balls. The mixture must be well mashed and bone-free and held together by the egg and potato. If it is too wet or loose, the balls can fall apart in the hot lard, so shape them firmly and fry until golden brown.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, pepper. 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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