Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Grandmother's Codfish Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the codfish in cold water until fresh, then drain.
Boil and mash the potatoes.
Make the mixture
Mix two-thirds mashed potatoes with one-third codfish while still hot.
Add plenty of butter to the mixture.
Form the mixture into balls.
Fry
Heat lard in a pan until hot, then fry the balls until golden brown.
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.
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Codfish
- Provides the salty, savoury flavour that defines the dish.
- Potatoes
- Bind the mixture and add starchy body that holds the balls together.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.
- Lard
- Conducts heat for frying and encourages a golden, browned crust.
The step that matters
Frying the balls in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the balls absorb oil and turn greasy before the surface browns. Hot fat sears the outside quickly, forming a crust that holds the shape and keeps the inside moist.
“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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