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Mock Cod Fish Balls

A potato-based dish shaped into fish-like balls, fried and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Cod Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potato mixture

  1. Drain and grate the hot potatoes.

  2. Stir in the butter and mix thoroughly.

  3. Season with salt, cayenne pepper, grated onion, and ground mace.

  4. Beat the egg yolks until light and stir into the mixture along with the cracker crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Form small balls and fry in boiling fat without crowding.

  2. Drain on kitchen paper and serve very hot on a platter, garnished with 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the starchy bulk that holds the fish balls together and gives them a soft interior.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, making the mixture softer and more tender when fried.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness, helping the balls hold their shape while frying.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the mixture firm up enough to shape.

The step that matters

Fry without crowding. Adding too many balls lowers the fat temperature, so they absorb grease and cook unevenly instead of forming a crisp, browned crust.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

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