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Dropped Codfish Balls

A fried codfish and potato mixture formed into balls and cooked in boiling fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Dropped Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the fish and potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes in a pot of water until tender.

  2. Layer the codfish on top of the potatoes, cover with boiling water, and boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the water and mash the fish and potatoes together until smooth.

Mix

  1. Mix in the butter, pepper, and beaten eggs until well combined.

Fry

  1. Heat a deep pan of boiling fat.

  2. Dip a tablespoon in the hot fat, scoop a spoonful of the mixture, and drop it into the boiling fat.

  3. Fry until golden brown, about 10 minutes, dipping the spoon in the fat each time.

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. Egg + buttertop 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
Supplies the main flavor and most of the bulk of the mixture.
Potatoes
Provide a soft starchy base that makes the mixture smooth and light.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help the balls set while they fry.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Dip the spoon in the hot fat before each ball. A spoon dipped in hot fat keeps the sticky mixture from clinging to it. The fat must be boiling so the outside sets and browns quickly, keeping each ball from absorbing excess fat and falling apart.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, 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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