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Codfish Balls

A fried ball made from mashed potatoes, codfish, butter, egg, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato 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 the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes in a kettle covered with boiling water until they can be mashed but not broken.

  2. Drain the water and let the potatoes dry for a moment, then mash and mince until light and well mixed.

  3. Add the butter and pepper, and when cool enough, mix in the beaten egg.

  4. Flour your hands slightly and shape the mixture into balls.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a pan until it can brown a piece of bread quickly.

  2. Drop in a slice of potato to prevent burning, then plunge in the wire basket containing the fish balls.

  3. Remove the balls when they are golden brown and serve.

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 + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Butter + potatotop 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. Egg + potatotop 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
Starch that mashes into a light, binding base for the balls.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Codfish
Provides the main flavour and protein of the balls.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother texture to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Heating the lard. The fat must be hot enough to brown the balls quickly on the outside. If it is too cool, the balls absorb grease and turn heavy, while a fat that is too hot browns the outside before the centre is cooked.

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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