Name: Codfish Balls
Ingredients: codfish; cold water; boiling water; mashed potatoes; butter; milk; lard or beef dripping; beaten egg (optional)

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codfish by boiling it, then shred it into fine pieces, removing skin and bones.
Place the fish in a pot of cold water, bring to a boil slowly, and skim off any scum.
Pour off the water and replace it with boiling water; bring to a boil again and drain well.
Mix the hot shredded fish with an equal amount of hot mashed potatoes, butter, and milk until well combined.
Quickly form the mixture into balls or thick flat cakes.
Heat enough lard or beef dripping in a vessel to immerse the balls when melted.
Fry the balls in the hot fat until they are light brown, turning them to cook both sides.
Optionally, stir beaten egg into the mixture for smoothness or dip each ball in beaten egg before frying.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

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